A legacy of music with the 'Topsingers'

Rosemarie Natale, pictured on her wedding day, and Russell Izzo met through music, and raised 10 musical children.

The Topsingers. clockwise from top left: siblings Gloria, Cyndi, Domenick and Tony. At center, nephew Thomas.

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The five members of the Topsingers a cappella group, who will be performing alongside some other name acts at the Patchogue Theatre on June 30 — have a long history, starting with two musicians who met at a party in Brooklyn in the mid 1940s.

“My mother, Rosemarie (Mugsy) Natale was playing the guitar, and my dad, Russell (Pop) Izzo, was playing the mandolin when they met,” said Cyndi Hazell, one of the four siblings and a nephew who currently comprised the Topsingers. “They quickly realized that they made beautiful music together … they got married and had ten musical children.”

The Izzos raised their brood — Vincent, Lucille, Bob, Antoinette, Tony, Bill, Cyndi, Domenick, Gloria and Russell — in a big brick house on the corner of 111th Avenue and 117th Street in South Ozone Park. Neighbors and passersby could hear all kinds of sounds floating out of the windows of the house at any time of day or night. Whether it was opera, classical piano, Doo Wop or Broadway tunes, music was always at the core of the family’s dynamic.

“They always had these instruments laying around the house, so inevitably, we children picked them up and played, having inherited our parents’ musical genes,” said Tony Izzo, the fourth oldest and a member of the Topsingers. “Our mother was the glue that kept this family together. The party didn’t really start to swing until she started playing her favorite Italian and Spanish ethnic songs, as well as Broadway and standard tunes. There were many unforgettable parties over the years.” Sadly, Rosemarie died in August of 2001, and her husband, Russell, just eight months later. But their musical legacy lives on through their children, and now their grandchildren.

From oldest to youngest, music and the arts always came naturally to the Izzo siblings. Oldest sister Lucille, who sings and plays acoustic guitar, began teaching harmony to her younger brothers and sisters for fun, and as a way of keeping them out of their mother’s hair. ”This activity prepared us well for family parties and weddings,” she said.