Pat DiCesare

Pat DiCesare is a concert promoter whose career began in the mid fifties at the beginning of the rock and roll era. His Pittsburgh company called DiCesare Engler Productions was among the top grossing concert productions companies in the country.

He began his career in the music business as a teenager forming a Doo Wop singing group called The Penn Boys with friends in his hometown of Trafford, PA in 1957.

On September 14, 1964, Pat DiCesare and Tim Tormey promoted the Beatles in concert at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

On March 26, 1965, DiCesare along with his boyhood friend and school mate Sonny Vaccaro also a Youngstown State University graduate co-founded The Dapper Dan Roundball Classic. It was the first national high school championship basketball game and it featured the ten best high school all stars from Pennsylvania against the ten best in the country. The game sold out the Pittsburgh Civic Arena every year and lasted over 30 years.

DiCesare held the exclusive leases on The Civic Arena, Three Rivers Stadium and the 3700 seat Syria Mosque. This prompted Ed Masley of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to write, “If you expected to play Pittsburgh in the late ‘60s, pal, you either talked to Pat DiCesare or you stayed home. DiCesare bought the 3,700 seat Stanley theatre in 1978 and sold it in 1984 to the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. It is now called the Benedum Center. He promoted every major concert act in the business in the last half of the 20th century including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Janis Joplin, Chicago, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Simon and Garfunkel and the list goes on.