Vincenzo Stagliano was born in Chiaravalle Centrale, Italy on May 7, 1893. ¹ He and his brother, Giussepe, arrived in the United States on the SS Re D'Italia on November 2, 1910. Sometime after his arrival, he assumed the professional name James Albert Stagliano. ². He first appears in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for the 1919-1920 season as "Stagliano, J. A." ³. In 1933, Mr. Stagliano filed a Declaration of Intention to become a naturalized citizen of the United States, followed by a Petition for Naturalization in 1936. ⁴ He was granted U.S. citizenship a year later at which time he also petitioned the court to formally change his name from Vincenzo to Albert Stagliano. ⁵ While in Detroit Mr. Stagliano maintained an apartment in the newly-constructed Santa Fe Apartments within walking distance of Orchestra Hall, and at the same time he also owned a house in Lochmoor Village (now the Village of Grosse Pointe Woods) in the Detroit suburbs. ⁶ With the one exception cited in the notes below, there is no indication that he was ever married and he had no children. On July 10, 1947 he intended to sail from Southampton, England on the S.S. Queen Elizabeth, returning to his home at 70 Lido Blvd., Lido Beach, New York. His name, however, was crossed off of the ships manifest. ⁷
Mr. Stagliano's professional career is detailed below.

In 1919 Mr. Stagliano joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as fifth horn while that same year Bruno Jaenicke (1887-1946) also joined the section as principal. For the 1921-22 season Mr. Stagliano became alternate solo horn with Mr. Jaenicke. On May 11, 1922, he was featured on WCX radio, with Theordore Yeschke, flute, Maurice Warner, violin, and Dirk Van Emmerich, piano. The Detroit Free Press reviewed Mr. Stagliano's performance as follows: " For the first time the French horn, played by Mr. Stagliano, was heard over the radio. This instrument is not often used for solo work even on the concert platform and came as a delightful surprise to the listeners-in. Mr. Stagliano is one of the few French horn soloists in America and plays the instrument with skill. ...Then came a foretaste of the general unusualness of the program in the flute and French horn number "Souvenir du Rigi" by Doppler, played by Mr. Yeschke and Mr. Stagliano. ...Combining the four instruments, violin, horn, flute and piano, an exquisite Nocturne by Doppler was given before M. Stagliano played a French horn solo, an aria by Sinigaglia, which set the Radio Department telephones jangling with questions ss to the identity of player and instrument. "

The following two seasons there was a turnover of co-principal horns. Mr. Jaenicke moved to the New York Philharmonic and was replaced by Arkadia Yegudkin (1884-1956), and then for the 1923-24 season Otto Berndt from Berlin replaced Mr. Yegudkin. In 1924, the section was reduced to four players with Mr. Stagliano as solo horn. He remained in that position through the 1935-36 season. (From 1919 through the 1927-28 season he is listed in the D.S.O. programs as "Stagliano, J.", then in 1928 as "Stagliano, A." (presumably to distinquish himself from his nephew, James Stagliano), and finally in 1931 as "Stagliano, Albert".) At the same time he also served as principal horn in the first known radio orchestra in the United States, the Detroit News Orchestra, created by the newspaper of the same name.

For the 1936/37 season Mr. Stagliano moved to the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra as principal horn season, where he was immediately noticed in their first concert of the series by reviewer Herbert Elwell of the Cleveland Plain Dealer (October 23, 1936): "Incidentally, the excellent work being done by the new first horn player, Albert Stagliano, should not go without mention." The program conducted by Artur Rodzinski included the "Prelude and Love Death" from Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde", and the First Symphony of the young Soviet composer, Shostakovich.
After only one season in Cleveland Mr. Stagliano was selected to be the first principal horn of the newly-formed hand-picked NBC Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini for its inaugural season (1937/38). In 1939 he returned to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra once again as its principal horn remaining for the next three seasons. Then, according to one source, Mr. Stagliano returned to the NBC Symphony for the 1943/44 through 1945/46 seasons while Arthur Berv was serving in the United States Air Force Band.

Albert Stagliano was the uncle of and teacher of James Stagliano (1912-1987), who became principal horn of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a well-known horn soloist. At age 16, James joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as assistant principal to his uncle.