The New Music Society | Dana New Music Festival 25

A Plumeri/Rollin CD Release Reception in memory of Bob Fitzer and Walter Mony will be held on Wednesday April 22, 2:00-4:00 pm in the Dean's Art Gallery in the College of Fine and Performing Arts.

Robert Rollin, a native of Brooklyn, New York, began composing at age 8 and was soon recommended by conductor Erich Leinsdorf for a special composition scholarship at Juilliard. Graduating Phi Beta Kappa from City College and with a doctorate from Cornell, he studied under Mark Brunswick, Ravi Shankar, Robert Palmer, Karel Husa, Elliot Carter, and György Ligeti. He has been recognized with annual ASCAP awards consecutively for two decades, and has held many important awards, post doctoral fellowships, and grants, including the Ohio Governor's Award for Creative Excellence presented by the Honorable Richard Celeste in a public ceremony.

Rollin's many compositions have been performed and broadcast on six continents, and have been used as required jury pieces in the U.S.A., France, and South Africa. He serves as Associated Editor of Ex tempore, a theoretical journal, and has authored numerous articles for international journals. An active pianist, he is founder and coordinator of the International Dana New Music Festival and conductor of the Dana Festival Chamber Orchestra, a professional group. Rollin's recent premieres and guest residencies have taken him to four continents. For more information about new music activities, visit the New Music Society web site (www.newmusicsociety.net).

Johnterryl Plumeri, who has been Dana Guest Composer in the past, studied bass with Robert Brennand, who was principal bass of the New York Philharmonic, and composition and conducting with Hungarian conductor/composer Antal Dorati, a student of Bela Bartok. Plumeri has recently conducted the Moscow Philharmonic in a CD recording of Tchaikovsky's last three symphonies, and just made a commercial video with the group featuring Tchaikovsky and Plumeri's own The Pride of Baltimore for oboe and orchestra. Plumeri lives in Santa Monica, California, where he writes music for films, and also has a home in Tampa, Florida, where he regularly performs with his professional jazz trio that includes David Goldblatt, piano and Joe La Barbera, drums Their recent CD, Blue in Green, has had rave reviews. Recently Plumeri has become active in the mastering phase of CD production.

Fitzer was born in Youngstown, Ohio on July 27, 1956 to James Robert Fitzer and Dolores Elvira (Severino) Fitzer, who were Dana School of Music faculty members. Fitzer was widely known in Youngstown for his political and community activism. He served on the faculty of the Dana School of Music since 1996 and was director of the Clarinet Studies program.

Fitzer began musical studies with pianist Gene Rush (Tennessee State University) and with pianist Harold Danko (Eastman School of Music) and began clarinet studies at age 10 with Carl Marks Jr. He graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor of arts in performance. Fitzer undertook additional academic and performance training at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria and at the International Festival-Institute in Round Top, Texas. He studied with Chicago Symphony Orchestra clarinetists Clark Brody and Larry Combs.

From 1987 to 1994 Fitzer was a feature writer and senior consultant for Speed of Sound magazine. He was a founding member of Easy Street Productions' Little Big Band and served as co-host and producer of the WYSU-FM political radio show "Commentary Café" from 1995 to 2001.

Aside from his work as a musician and educator, Fitzer was active in community and civic affairs. He was president of the Citizens' League of Greater Youngstown; served as a Mahoning County Democratic Party Executive Committee member; and was a chairman of the Wick Park Model Neighborhood Project.

Walter Mony was born in Winnipeg, Canada, and began violin with George Bornoff and John Waterhouse. As a scholarship student at the Royal College in London he studied under Albert Sammons, Henry Hoist, and Max Rostal, soon becoming Assistant Principal of the London Symphony and a member of the Royal Philharmonic under Sir Thomas Beecham. Touring with the Nederburg Trio, with which he recorded extensively on major labels, he moved to South Africa, becoming Chair of Music at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He is beloved as a concert soloist, having performed the South African premieres of the concertos of Stravinsky, Walton, Suk, Shostakovich, and Bartók, as well as world premieres of South African Composers Graham Newcater and Carl van Wyk. He was equally versatile on violin and viola.

Mony was active worldwide as a conductor of professional and youth orchestras, a string clinician and adjudicator, and also as a lecturer. The University of the Witwatersrand has conferred on him the titles of Professor Emeritus and Honorary Professorial Research Fellow for his meritorious service.

This event is free and open to the public. For more information call 330-941-3636.

New Music Festival CD Release Reception