Founded in 1934, Ernest Deffner, Inc. is home to Titano Accordions, PANcordion Accordions, Pigini Accordions’ North American distribution, and Ernest Deffner Publications. Busso Music, Inc. serves as the marketing, distribution, and educational arm of the company, and maintains the Busso Music School in Alexandria, Virginia.

The firm maintains a never ending support for accordion music, accordion-related programs, and education through an ever-expanding role within the domestic and international accordion communities.

Titano, Pigini, and PANcordion instruments offer every accordionist, from beginner to advanced artist, an instrument to encourage performance by providing excellent design, exclusive features, and quality components. The company also offers complete accordion repair services including installation of microphone (pickup) and MIDI components, as well as a wide selection of factory serviced and guaranteed used accordions.

Titano Accordion Company originated with Ed and Dorothy Traficante in Minneapolis, Minnesota, who sought a quality instrument line to offer students in their Traficante chain of music schools. The Traficantes travelled to the birthplace of the accordion, Castelfidardo, Italy, in search of renowned craftsmen to fashion top of the line instruments. The Titano accordion was born. Titano accordions are the product of modern technology blended with the time-honored techniques handed down from one generation to the next.

In 1965, the Traficantes sold Titano Accordion Company to Ernest Deffner. Over the years, the company expanded the product line, worked to develop accordion education programs at universities and colleges, and made great strides in broadening the range of Titano distribution. North American distribution of Titano accordions grew substantially through a network of the area’s foremost music schools and teachers. Specifically, Canadian sales blossomed through the efforts of Fred Kent and Loren Cartwright of Mid-West Musical Instruments in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Titano quickly became the leading brand in many countries.

In the markets where it is best known, Titano has been the accordion brand of choice for dozens of national champions. Titano enjoys great prominence in concert halls, at colleges, and among top name accordion orchestras. The ever growing list of important soloists, groups, and orchestras featuring Titano accordions attests to Titano's dedication to the accordionist.

Throughout the design process, Ernest Deffner has collaborated with leading accordion classicists such as Bill Palmer and Bill Hughes (famed for their Palmer-Hughes Accordion Course), Robert Davine, Bill Schimmel, Pauline Oliveros, Donald Balestrieri, Carmelo Pino, William Popp, Joan Cochran Sommers, Harley Jones, Yuan Fang, Carl Elmer, Lloyd LaVaux and others.

Over the years Titano accordions have become the standard for use in colleges and universities which offered the instrument as a major course of study. The first such program commenced in 1946 at the University of Houston in Texas, where Bill Palmer introduced the accordion to scores of young musicians who went on to major on the instrument. Mr. Palmer and Mr. Hughes helped perfect Titano accordions to meet the rigid standards required for advanced music education and professional concert performances.

There is a Titano accordion to accommodate all levels of skill from beginner to concert artist. For those who seek the finest, Titano offers a world of free flowing vibrant tones, balanced design for playing ease, a highly responsive keyboard, and an amazing array of tonal colorations.

Ernest Deffner, Inc. joined forces with Robert Pancotti, formerly of Excelsior Accordion Company, and together developed and patented a series of accordion innovations under the brand name PANcordion. PANcordion accordions quickly found acceptance among professional accordionists, many of whom offered new ideas for further development. Lawrence Welk, Myron Floren, Frankie Yankovic, Don Lipovac, Billy Costa, Milt DeLugg, Bobby Creach, Maddalena Belfiore, Dick Metko, Paul Norback and other noted professionals chose PANcordion instruments to further their careers.

Throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, the PANcordion factory in Long Island, New York employed dozens of craftsmen to meet America's growing desire for fine handmade accordions. Among PANcordion's most notable craftsmen were John and Angelo Magnante (Charles Magnante's brothers), Natale Frosini (Pietro Frosini's brother), the Pancotti brothers (Roberto and Archimedes), and others whose talents added to the success of PANcordion in the accordion world.

Ernest Deffner later decided that the American market was ready for an Italian-made PANcordion line and he dispatched the top PANcordion craftsmen to the factory of Cav. Sante Crucianelli to set up for production. Crucianelli became PANcordion's Italian affiliate and Ernest Deffner, Inc.’s sales network began distribution under the brand names of PANitalia, Crucianelli, and Video (named after Montevideo). Today, PANcordion offers a full line of instruments with superior tone quality, fast action keyboards and lightweight design.

On the June 6, 1946, Filippo Pigini pioneered the firm "F.lli Pigini di Filippo" in Ancona, Italy. His founding partners were Adriano, Gino, Luigi and Marino Pigini. Filippo possessed a remarkable sense of business and he and his brothers managed to persevere through the tumultuous post-war period. Their dedication and enthusiasm resulted in one of the most dynamic firms in the field of accordions. First deliveries of Pigini accordions to the USA, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Argentina, Egypt, and Pakistan showed Pigini’s international spirit right from the start.

The company was run for many years by Gino Pigini who, at the age of 14, was already an expert “vociarolo” (reed maker). He believed in young people with new ideas and the desire to learn. He soon formed a team of exceptional craftsmen, and even today, his work and philosophy are inherent in Pigini’s top quality products. Played by world renowned artists such as Viatcheslav Semionov, Friedrich Lips, Peter Soave, and Stas Venglevski, Pigini applies the most advanced production technologies to an old artisan tradition and employs only the finest materials.

As some of the time-honored accordion publishing houses ceased to issue new material or reprint certain pieces, Ernest Deffner, Inc. recognized the need for ongoing publication of important selections of accordion literature. Ernest Deffner Publications added to its publishing house the libraries of the two most venerated music publishing firms of the United States: Pietro Deiro Accordion Headquarters and O. Pagani & Brothers. Today, Ernest Deffner Publications is known and respected worldwide and continues to publish thousands of pieces by many famous composers, including: Jindrich Feld, John Franceschina, Carmelo Pino, Ernst Krenek, Bill Schimmel, Palmer-Hughes, Otto Leuning, Douglas Mews, Gary Daverne, Karen Fremar, Anders Groethe, Anthony Galla-Rini, Addie Cere, Andrezej Krzanowski, and Alan Leichtling.

The Busso Music School is an ever-growing facility for musical education which offers lessons on a wide-range of instruments, including accordion, piano, and a variety of brass and string instruments. The school’s director is Frank Busso, Jr. A professional accordionist and seasoned entertainer, Mr. Busso currently serves as the accordionist with the Strolling Strings of the United States Air Force Band. Since 2001, he has been performing with his father and sister as part of The Busso Trio, an all-accordion ensemble. Mr. Busso is a skilled educator of all levels, from true beginner to advanced artist, and since 1995 has been an instructor at such institutions as the Staten Island Music School, the Busso Music School, and Boston University.

An accordion can only be as good as the materials from which it is made and as good as the skill of the artisans who fashion these materials into the finished products. Each Titano, Pigini, and PANcordion instrument is built to rigid quality-controlled standards. Dozens of quality checkpoints at the factories in Italy provide accurate metering of all musical qualities plus alignments, balancing, pressure differentials, seal points, air flow, efficiency of valve systems, piston action, dimensional stability, operational silence, and more. Each accordion is later fully-checked, custom-adjusted, and tested for all phases of musical and mechanical performance by skilled craftsmen at the factory before shipment.

Since the accordion's cost is only a small part of the value of a musical education, a quality instrument is the soundest investment you can make. You must have an accordion which you will enjoy continuously without losing precious playing time for costly repairs. Titano, Pigini, and PANcordion accordions assure you of endless playing pleasure and stimulate your musical progress. You are assured that your instrument has the highest resale and trade-in value because it has been built for a lifetime of trouble-free performance. Enjoy the pride of owning the finest.

Deluxe, custom-crafted details have made our instruments the choice of famous accordionists and instructors. On TV and film, recordings, and live performances, wherever professional perfection is required, our accordions are the choice of the finest musicians. When you play one of our models, you share a superb musical achievement with some of the world's top accordionists.