Milan Verni

Serbian-American tamburitza player (b. September 21, 1897 Majdari (Mađari) [then Austria-Hungary] – died July 30, 1972 New York, NY) Born Milan Vranešević in a small village in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Verni emigrated to the United States in August 1912. He married his Croatian wife Mary in 1922 in Detroit. A versatile musician who played first the prima, then the tamnuritza cello and later the mandolin and the Russian domra. By 1926, he had moved to New York where he and his group entertained diners at the Dubrovnik Restaurant. Later, he ran his own restaurant, the Balkan Cafe, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He became a U.S. citizen in February 1940 in New York. Milan Verni was inducted into the Tamburitza Association of America's Hall of Fame in 1998.