Written by: Victoria Nardulli
Joe Nardulli was born on November 26th, 1965 in Flushing New York to parents Rosina and Ignazio Nardulli. He lived in Flushing with his parents and two sisters Margherita and Catherine until he was 28 years old when he married his wife Linda in 1993. Together, they moved into a home of their own in New Hyde Park and soon after had two daughters Jessica and Victoria. Joe is an electrical engineer and works as the project manager of Schaltbau North America, a company that manages parts for the rail industry. While his career is in the engineering industry, Joe has a passion for music. He spends a lot of his time at home writing his own songs, and playing them with his band, Ad Astra.
Joe’s father Ignazio was an Italian immigrant who had a very humble career as a baker and candy maker. His mother Rosina was born in America very shortly after her family immigrated from Italy through Ellis Island. Growing up, Joe described his life at home as being “very family oriented”. He enjoyed his mother’s home cooked meals every day and had a very close relationship with his two younger sisters. Although he was born in America, Joe’s first language was Italian as that is what was strictly spoken at home. That brought up some struggles for him in his early school life. “It was definitely an obstacle for me. I struggled at first, but eventually found my legs”, says Joe regarding his life at school learning english as a second language. As a child, Joe always liked electronics. When asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, he responded with “Nothing specific but I knew I wanted to be in the scientific field”. As he got older his love for science and specifically electrical systems only grew stronger. This led to Joe attending the City College of New York where he received a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering. He worked as an engineer for Standard Motor Products in New York City until he left that job in 2008 to help his wife run her online furniture business. Soon after, the business had to close down due to the rise of Amazon, and Joe had to look for another job. Joe claims, “I knew my electrical engineering skills could translate well to any environment”, and so he decided to take a leap of faith and change his career to a project management position in the field. Unfortunately during this same time, Joe’s brother in law became very sick with Cancer and his sister was struggling to take care of her three children. Because of this, Joe and his wife decided to move further East on Long Island with their daughters to be closer to their family. This was a difficult time for Joe because he was still between jobs looking for one that was a good fit for him. Eventually, he started his project management position at Schaltbau North America and is still there to this day. He credits his belief in himself to this successful change in careers. The company he now works for designs, manufactures, and tests master controllers for the rail industry. When asked what some of his daily responsibilities at his job are, Joe responds, “I look at blueprints and schematics and am in frequent communication with the other branches of the company in Europe and China.” An interesting aspect of this job is that Joe has gotten to travel to the other locations of the company to meet with their project managers. He has traveled to Italy, Germany, and China to discuss project planning with their branches. While this job is something that Joe enjoys, he
has been playing the guitar since he was 10 years old, and has never given up on his dream to be a part-time rockstar. He started a progressive rock band in 2004 which he named, Ad Astra, a shortened version of the latin phrase “Ad Astra per Aspera”, meaning “to the stars through difficulties”. His love for the guitar and investment in the band is so strong that he designed and built a music studio in his current home which holds his collection of 7 guitars, a keyboard, and a full drum set. “I try to get the band together at least once a week to practice for the gigs we play across New York and it’s really something I enjoy.” One of Joe’s favorite
achievements with Ad Astra is being recognized in a New York Post article surrounding the 2019 movie Ad Astra with Brad Pitt. A goal of Joe’s is to play more shows with his band and to develop more success in his musical career.
Joe credits his successes in both his musical career and his engineering career partly to looking up to his father Ignazio as a role model. His father came to America at 26 years old, speaking no English, to marry and start a family with Joe’s mother Rosina. He knew America as the land of
opportunity, and wanted to make a courageous move to give his wife and future children a better life. His fearfulness and dedication to his family through hardship are traits that Joe strives to embody. When asked “What are some things that make you unique?”, Joe responds proudly with, “I think that my father's background and the fact that I basically had to teach myself the English language to get through school really set me up to be an especially hard worker in all aspects of my life. I work tediously at my job as a project manager but also have made enough personal time for writing and composing my own music. I wrote the music, produced, and recorded myself playing every instrument for a whole album on my own before I started Ad Astra, so I definitely think that’s unique and not something your average Joe could do. No pun intended.” Maybe being a comedian is something he should add to his repertoire! After all, it seems that whatever Joe Nardulli has put his mind to in life, he has succeeded at.
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