Composer’s courage continues to pay off BY LINDA DeNICOLA Staff Writer Mark Zuckerman ROOSEVELT — Mark Zuckerman knew that he would never find an ad for a composer’s position in the job listings. He knew that he would have to do something else to support himself while he built his life around music. So he arranged his job and his life around his musical work and moved to Roosevelt, a unique town that is supportive of all types of committed artists. His hard work and genius for musical composition has paid off. Zuckerman is one of two New Jersey composers to be awarded a fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts (NJSCA). It is quite a coup, especially since the criterion, besides being a state resident, is artistic excellence. Overall, the NJSCA granted fellowships to 28 New Jersey artists out of a pool of 303 applicants in five artistic disciplines. The $8,200 from the fellowship is welcome, but Zuckerman said the validation is worth more. "It’s extremely difficult in this environment to get your music played," he said. "Very few people want to take chances on playing music that is unknown." Zuckerman’s music ranges from virtuoso solo pieces to music for chamber and large ensembles. He has written extensively for chorus, including a set of internationally recognized arrangements of Yiddish songs. His work has been performed and recorded by prominent musicians throughout the United States and Canada. Zuckerman said he submitted two work samples, literally 10 minutes’ worth of music. One piece was a song cycle that he had done for some friends, a flutist and a soprano, called "Menagerie." "It’s a cycle of songs of children’s poems by French poet Robert Desnos," he said. "Some of his poems are as well known in France as the Mother Goose rhymes. "The other piece was two settings of Emily Dickinson poems," he added. "It was for a group called Tales and Scales that specializes in a program called music telling. They play pieces of music that are written and choreographed for them. The Dickinson setting was actually concert pieces. They wanted something that had to do with nature, and Emily Dickinson had a fascination with nature." The piece was written for flute, clarinet, bass trombone, vibraphone and triangle with the text spoken by the instrumentalist, Zuckerman said. Both pieces are demonstrative and humorous. "They are both basically a lot of fun," he said. "The kind of music I like to write is music that is at least fun to play and hopefully [fun] to listen to." Zuckerman studied at New York City’s Juilliard, the University of Michigan, Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., and Princeton University, where he earned a doctorate in composition under the tutelage of Milton Babbitt, J.K. Randall and Peter Westergaard. He and his wife, Judith, a psychotherapist with Jewish Family Services of Southern Middlesex, divide their time between Roosevelt and Hoboken. Zuckerman moved to Roosevelt when he was a graduate student in 1973 because of Bernarda Shahn. "I was looking for a place to complete my dissertation in peace," he said. "I was living at the time in the center of Princeton and running the computer music laboratory and on call 24 hours a day. "I was at a party that the school gave welcoming new students and someone suggested that I talk to Bernarda Shahn, who had just gotten back from an archaeological dig in Turkey," Zuckerman recalled. "We developed an immediate rapport, and I rented her son’s house while he was away. When he returned, I bought a house in town." At that time, he was teaching at Princeton and working toward his doctorate. After he left Princeton, he taught at Columbia University in New York City and commuted between Roosevelt and an apartment that he shared with another musician in the city. "I wound up, for a variety of reasons, working with computers," he said. "At the time that I was at Princeton, the field of computer music was beginning to take hold. The music department was the largest user of the university computers, so that’s how I make my living. I started a company and wound up housing it in the factory in Roosevelt." He has also been the editor of the Roosevelt Bulletin and is working on an opera with Roosevelt poet David Herrstrom. "Making a living as a composer is a virtual impossibility," he said. "Some of my friends are writing music for television or educational groups, or high school choruses. Getting a commission is more the fact that someone is willing to play the piece than the money in general. That’s why I was thrilled to get this fellowship. The criteria is entirely based on my work and did not take into consideration any other demographic other than my residency." The New Jersey Arts Council tries to build a synergy with programs across the state, but it is much more geared toward visual arts, he said. "They do have a number of opportunities for artists’ residencies and for commissions with dance groups and performing groups that need music created for them," Zuckerman said. That’s an opportunity that I would like to have." He believes that there should be more support for amateur musicians. "They are also overworked in our society," he said. "I write a lot of music for amateurs. Some of my best stuff is music I wrote of Yiddish songs for amateur choirs." Zuckerman said his first opportunity came in middle school when he was only 11 years old. "I had my first public performance and played the cello part. I had to fake it because I didn’t play that well." He played saxophone in the high school band in Ardsley, N.Y. "It was one of the best bands in the state," Zuckerman said. "My band director was an astonishing teacher and was very generous in letting me use the band. He premiered three of my pieces. I haven’t been that lucky since." More important, his director’s support gave him the courage to pursue his craft. "When I was teaching at the college level, a number of my students were majoring in music, but were going on to other schools like law schools," he said, adding, "It takes a certain amount of courage to be a composer."