Most young Milwaukeeans these days know who Victor DeLorenzo is, thanks to his years as drummer for hometown heroes, the Violent Femmes. But the Racine-born DeLorenzo is not the first major player in the Milwaukee music scene to carry that name.

Rocco DeLorenzo -- no relation it seems as Victor's family is Sicilian -- who was born in 1856 in Corleto, near Naples, Italy and came to the United States when he was just 9 years old, was, for many years, perhaps Milwaukee's most respected musician.

DeLorenzo, at the behest of his father, began to play the violin from an extremely early age, and by the time he trekked to Bordeaux, France with his elder brother John Baptiste to come to America, Rocco was already a talented violinist.

After the four-and-a-half month trip, the DeLorenzos settled first in New Orleans. In 1871, DeLorenzo traveled to Milwaukee as an interpreter for a French musician in search of a harp. He loved the city so much that he moved here 17 years later.

Soon after arriving here, he joined the nationally-respected DeBona string quartet which had a regular gig at a resort in Whitefish Bay and made frequent trips to perform in Chicago. He also performed with the Ferrullo orchestra and served as that group's secretary and manager for a year. He spent more than a decade with the DeBona quartet.

When Tom Saxe opened his theater at 2nd and Wisconsin, DeLorenzo was a member of the trio that accompanied the silent pictures.

When the immortal tenor Enrico Caruso came to Milwaukee, DeLorenzo was tapped to perform in the orchestra and also to host Caruso and show him around. He did the same for the great composer Pietro Mascagni, too.

DeLorenzo -- who also was skilled on the mandolin and banjo -- was also known personally by many Milwaukeeans for his work as a music teacher at the Wisconsin Conservatory, Marquette University and in his own home.

"I remember lots of music around the house as Rocco used to give music lessons in our parlor," recalls his grandson Frank DeLorenzo, a retired World War II naval aviator, now living in Pensacola, Fla. "It had two sliding doors that could close it off and they were always closed while he was teaching and it was definitely out of bounds for all of us grandkids when he had a pupil in the parlor."

But despite an early attempt at music by Frank, Rocco DeLorenzo's love for music wasn't transmitted in the DNA, it seems.

"When I was a teenager I had a yen to learn to play the ukelele, which drove my dad and Rocco wild! They insisted I learn to play the banjo. They bought me a banjo at a pawn shop for 10 bucks, and that old banjo and I never did get along.

"Really none of Rocco's children or grandchildren ever took to music. Most all of us couldn't even sing in a church choir. Genes are curious things."

But DeLorenzo left his mark. For years after his death at age 90 in July 1946, many Milwaukeeans fondly remembered Rocco's birthday bashes, which were memorable events, and he was usually the guest of honor when the Milwaukee Association of Musicians held its annual gala.