Walter Ostanek

Walter Ostanek, born Ladislav John Ostanek on 20 April 1935 in Duparquet, Quebec, is a Canadian accordionist and bandleader known as "Canada's Polka King". He is on Muzika-Balkan because he is of Slovene descent, as both English and Slovenian Wikipedia say, and because the music he made his name with is the Slovenian-style polka, also called Cleveland-style. As a boy he moved with his family to St. Catharines, Ontario, where he still lives.

He got his first accordion as a gift in 1944, and after a few years he was a popular entertainer in southern Ontario, often heard on the radio in St. Catharines and Welland. In 1957 he formed his own band to play Slovenian-style polkas and waltzes, and in 1963 the Walter Ostanek Band recorded the first of its many albums. His recordings are mostly instrumental dance music, with some songs sung in English.

He has recorded more than 50 albums, among them Gay Continental Dance Party (1965), Accordionally Yours and I Like Frankie Yankovic. His style has been compared with that of America's Polka King, Frankie Yankovic, who is also of Slovene descent and with whom he appeared in concert. He has been nominated for thirteen Grammy Awards and won Best Polka Album three times running, in 1992, 1993 and 1994.

He hosted his own television and radio shows, one of them for fourteen years in a row, led polka tours, and appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Cleveland's Polka Varieties. He has shared the stage with Roy Clark, Brenda Lee, Lawrence Welk and Myron Floren, and he plays the Kitchener Oktoberfest every year. He is said to have inspired the Shmenge Brothers polka parody on SCTV, and in 2006 he was the subject of the documentary The Cult of Walt: Canada's Polka King.

He became a Member of the Order of Canada in 1999, was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2001, and received the SOCAN Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. He ran a music store in St. Catharines until 2013. The playlist gathers his band's polkas and waltzes.