RON MAZUREK: REMEMBERING THE JOURNEY

Ron Mazurek (photo provided by Tom Beyer)

Today, April 26, Ron Mazurek, colleague, composer and friend, passed away in 2007. Yet, in the midst of the Pandemic of 2020, I feel the palpable presence of this quiet, unassuming man who was possibly one of the most gifted composers I have known. He quietly leapt across boundaries, each new work sculpting new territory as his creative work absolutely accepted no boundaries, no limitations. Just listen to this amazing work for Marimba "Masked Dances" performed by Peter Jarvis at the Memorial Concert for Ron, May 27, 2009: Masked Dances

Affectionately, this is known as Dinu Ghezzo & Friends

I was honored to be a fellow traveler with Ron on journeys to Europe where we performed and improvised multimedia works with sounds, movement, and media in a spontaneous eruption of discovery laced in the immediacy of Time and Space that echoes even now in the chambers of memory. Our mentor was Maestro Dinu Ghezzo, who was the Director of the NYU Music Composition Program, where Ron received his PhD in composition. Dinu was our mentor and inspiration, musicing defined his essence, as every silence was waiting to be filled and emerge through his magic of inspiring us all to give our best to each moment.

Ron was also a mentor to us all through his quiet presence that commanded our deepest respect. He led by example, and while quietly succinct, he had a way of disarming tense moments, and understanding that every challenge was followed by a resolution.  He was a Professor at Bergen Community College, where he developed a state of the art electronic music studio. It happened that he mentored my son, John Russell Gilbert, who remembers that "he showed me how to make my musical visions a reality.”

The most enduring characteristic of Ron’s character was his enthusiastic efficiency and  successful completion of  tasks and projects.  Once completed, Ron would always quickly move forward to yet another project. His love of electronic music and  composition was undeniable.   He developed the first electronic music curriculum, electronic lab, and A.A.S. degree at Bergen Community College.

                          ...Linda A. Marcel, Ed.D. Chair of Music, Bergen Community College 2009 - 2012

Ron On Tour (photo provided by Tom Beyer)

Dr. Lisa Naugle was an integral part of our team who brought movement and dance to our productions that were often more like Happenings than staged events. She recalls that among the places we performed with Ron were Oldenberg Unversity, Florence, Italy, and the Catherdral of San Sabine in Bari "which was a high challenge because it was built around 1200." I remember that space well. It was dark and had the smell of antiquity. This space had never hosted the kind of media we intended to employ, and the challenge was somewhat intimidating. Lisa recalls that "No one had ever done projections there. There was an Italian dancer, and I communicated all choreography using my hands and drawing on paper...One of the most memorable experiences ever!"

I'm remembering our many journeys, always during Spring Break as Maestro Dinu would assemble the next adventure. For me, it was a cultural, musical, and spiritual awakening. In this particular Instance we toured Italy, beginning in Florence, then meandering across Italy to the Adriatic coast and Perugia, and finally the beautiful town of Bari. I remember having breakfast overlooking the Adriatic Sea and conjuring the many adventures that had brought us together in so many diverse settings...getting lost in Oldenburg, getting robbed by gypsies in Poland, getting my pockets picked in Berlin, staring down a gypsy thief in Romania, and ultimately getting mugged along with Lisa in Romania... I began to formulate an adventure story that coincided with these many travels. Through it all, Ron was stoic, and his presence and enduring smile was a comfort to all.

Photos by Lisa Naugle

Lisa remembers: "I remember the end of winter changing into spring when we would arrive in Europe – Poland or Germany, Italy or Portugal. Porto in particular, sunny and warm. We were walking across a street, complaining about jetlag, when Ron said, with New Jersey accent, “Forget about it”. He had a special way of saying that. Locating ourselves in a theater, Ron’s music, my dances (John Crawford’s video system, Active Space), we would get ready ( with only a few hours preparation) for the concert. “Bird of Passage” – Ron’s composition -- this was my favorite of his works… and our first piece with live, hand-held camera by a “video performer” capturing the dance and projecting the imagery onstage. His composition, “Ascension” was the second piece we did with live video capture, later turned into only video which travelled to festivals all over the world. Ron had a way of noticing things… small and large at the same time. His perspective was ahead of his time; maybe that’s why his voice still resonates with me. Words can’t describe it all but I imagine us talking, probably today about coronavirus. I hear him say…”forget about it.. let’s keep walking and get to the other side… It’s a beautiful day.” He looked for the positive in life… and I will always remember and be grateful to him."

Photo provided by Tom Beyer

Claiming the space meant installing equipment, a sound system, projection surfaces, and making sure we had ample space for the dancers. There was never time for rehearsals, only speculation of what we would do.

The 21st Century seemed to be spilling over barriers of the past, and incorporating it into the fabric of Now. The Church in Bari was definitely an iconic moment, and one that Ron relished.  I remember as I watched Ron with his equipment arranged on the stage like a small, intimate electronic studio that we were were privileged to share as a singular awareness of music being born in the moment.

His works are honest, and searching. Each composition lifted him to new discoveries, new levels. 

As I think to where I am now, I think the remembrance of him, sitting at his portable studio in a church centuries old, may be the reason that I am now returning to a portable rack systems of modules where I can improvise anywhere. I think this because Ron embodied the past, and his studio embraced the Apse of the Church almost like an ancient relic waiting to be resurrected. 

Ron with his "studio" in the apse of the Church in Bari (Photo provided by Tom Beyer)

When Ron passed, he was in class at Lehman College and someone messaged me saying that he had collapsed in class, and they were waiting for an ambulance. I had no idea what was going on, and no sense of his condition. But he died instantly there in the classroom setting he loved so much, with the students that he loved so much. The sense of loss was devastating.

We went to his funeral in New Jersey. Tom Beyer wrote:

I still hear Ron's words of wisdom as I move through my day and I relish the long, late night  conversations we had about all manner of things while on tour together.  But it is rare when one finds another that you can communicate with, without using words.  That was my experience with Ron, off stage as well as on.  I hope you will all, once again, hear the words he said to you in the numerous conversations you have all had with him.   But more importantly sense his presence and feel him helping to guide you through life "From A bowve" I will sorely miss my roommate and Geloto buddy.

The words above were the notes to Tom's video tribute From Abowve.

 

Reflecting on this day of Ron's passing, makes me realize we are all temporary sojourners on our own quests for meaning, and that we do go on to join all those who precede us... it seems like a mutual adventure begun in the throes of creation when suddenly, in less than an inkling, everything just was. There is a theory of entanglement that claims that everything, including ourselves, are all connected to the "end of Time."

My thanks to all those that I bothered in trying to get them to help me remember Ron, and in remembering, remember our mutual journeys, even now.

RETURN OF THE PUTNEY

In 1968, I was involved in discussion with Dr. Jerrold Ross about joining a new department at New York University in which I would be involved in creating new programs to establish a diverse, visionary performing arts department. I had just finished composing and producing a multimedia opera, ROTATION, as part of my doctoral thesis.  As it happened, I was studying composition with David Simon who happened to be the registrar of the New York College of Music. During the course of our lessons, I would disclose a number of ideas I had about music and technology and a new divergent model for music and performing arts programs connected to the professions. The concept was to have technology support every aspect of other programs, using recording studios to provide experience for our performance majors to be recorded, while also examining new techniques for recording, and researching acoustic and electronic sounds.

PUTNEY VCS

In 1969, as we began to implement a new program in music technology and music business, I learned of a new concept for a music synthesizer designed by Peter Zinoviev, an engineer musician who felt that synthesizers were overpriced. He designed the Synthi A which was dubbed the PUTNEY,  a voltage control synthesizer.  It sold for less than $1000.  I bought two for the department, and another for myself. Zinovief eliminated synthesizer patch cords with a grid that connected modules by means of a pin. He also added a joystick that could be connected to manipulate sounds and controls simultaneously. This began our modest beginning in music synthesis, and we set up dividing part of the hallway outside the music office into a synthesizer studio.

In 1970, KEYBOARD MAGAZINE, contacted me about NYU Co-Hosting with them a conference called THE SYNTHESIZER EXPLOSION. On a weekend, we transformed the Education Building and the Student Union Building into studios and demo rooms and we hosted hundreds of manufacturers and several hundred additional musicians and technicians for three days of transformational concerts, lectures and demos in Loewe Theatre,and hundreds more demos going on in different rooms and floors of The Educational Building and Student Union. The Synthesizer Explosion had about 2500-3000 visitors come to Washington Square for an iconic event.

Years passed and as the program grew, we moved to the eighth floor, and I traded a Steinway for an extensive Buchla 100 system, and we devoted a studio to the system.  We had installed a recording studio and a research lab on the eighth floor, and eventually the entire floor became studios for program with the exception of 879, which remained a classroom, while also servicing courses for music business and technology.

During this time of the COVID-19 Pandemic, I decided I wanted to return to experimenting with new aspects of music electronics and synthesis and began to research Eurorack systems and modules. As I was in the midst of designing my new system for improvising ambient music which I would use in videos and live performance, ERICA INSTRUMENTS announced it was creating a new version of the SYNTHI A (Putney VCS) that would be available at the end of April.

SYNTRX (ERICA INSTRUMENTS)

This is an extremely exciting development. The new version preserves the identity of the original, but has been updated for 2020. It really is an ingenious replication and a tribute to the visionary genius of Peter Zinovev.  Needless to say, I am awaiting its arrival in a few weeks if production is able to stay on schedule.  In many ways, in this time of isolation because of the endemic, I feel like I am entering a new era of sonic awareness.  I continue to design my ambient Eurorack, as there is so much more that I can explore.

A demo gives a taste of expressive qualities of The Syntrx.

 In https://youtu.be/nwsQnB2jDsA