Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients

Tady, Dick

Dick Tady made a lifetime commitment to the pursuit of excellence in music. From its inception, The Dick Tady Orchestra (D.T.O.) proudly carried the banner of Cleveland-Style Polkas with class and style from their base in Western Pennsylvania.

Dick took up his primary instrument, the tenor saxophone, at age eleven and played his first professional gig at fourteen. Dick was selected by his high school constituents to win the Arion Award for outstanding musicianship presented by New Kensington Music Society, studied at Youngstown University's Dana School of Music, earned a Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Duquesne University, and completed his Master's Equivalency at Penn State and Kent State Universities. Along the way, Dick mastered the clarinet, piano, flute, button box, and banjo and taught music for 34 years.

Influenced significantly by his brother, Jack, as well Cleveland's "big five"- Bass, Yankovic, Vadnal, Habat, and Pecon-Trebar - Dick embraced Cleveland-Style Polkas as an avocation. First recording with Jack Tady and the Polka Lads in 1958, Dick joined the Kenny Kron Band in 1962, taking it over in 1963.

Thereafter, Dick and the D.T.O. went about their business in decidedly non-flamboyant fashion, racking up accomplishment after accomplishment, performing throughout Western Pennsylvania and Ohio, and touring in New York, New Jersey, Nevada, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Hawaii, Canada, and the Caribbean.

Incorporating 45 of Dick's original compositions, the D.T.O. recorded two albums for Greyko, ten on Dick's Corjal label, and made one video, earning a grammy nomination for "Happy Polka Days" in 1992. The band was featured on Walter Ostanek's 1993 Grammy winner "Accordionally Yours," and Dick sang on Frankie Yankovic's 1996 Grammy nominee, "Songs of the Polka King." "Happy Days," "It's Polka Time," and "Majko Waltz" are among the bands many hits.

The D.T.O.'s many radio and television credits include Pittsburgh Steeler pep rally and tailgate parties and, notably, feature spots on WDVE, Pittsburgh's top Rock station. The band has performed at Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Arts Festival, for many charitable causes , and made a custom TV commercial for Subway Restaurants, "Return of the Myron Cope Kiebasa Sub." Additionally. Dick was featured on the "Alpine Poolka" commercial for Alpine pools.

Supported by the loyal and enthusiastic D.T.O. Fan Club, Dick and the D.T.O. amassed a bevy of awards including P.O.P.P. Man-of-the-Year in 1995, U.M.P.A.P.A Man-of-the-Year in 1991 and 1997, the WAMMY Award in 1993, the Polka News Network's European-American Music Award in 1995, the Allegheny-Kiski Valley Historical Society's Musical Heritage Award in 1995, and twelve National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame Annual Award nominations resulting in three Crystal Awards, Musician of the Year in 1994 and 1996 and Band of the Year in 1995.