“It is with great sadness we share the news that WYSO’s founder, Dr. Marvin Rabin has passed away.” WYSO Facebook page
The Open World of Marv Rabin
Marc Newhouse (2/18/13)
Want to see a guy go from his mid-nineties to about age fifty in thirty seconds or less?
Marvin Rabin does it, unbelievably, just by talking about music, his lifelong passion and profession.
Interesting what you know and don’t know about adults when you’re a kid. Rabin was the founder of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra; he was imported–OK, lured–to the UW from Boston. So I figured he was from a musical family, a long line of cultured, genteel, well-heeled patrician people.
Wrong, his father was a store keeper, and didn’t play an instrument. But his father, a Jewish immigrant from the Ukraine, did realize–vaudeville kept a lot of musicians fed and shod. Remember, the talking picture hadn’t been invented, and that meant every movie house had a pit orchestra. So his father put a violin in young Marvin’s hands, which changed his life and a lot of other lives.
Mine, for example. When Rabin believed in you…
But wait…
Rabin believed in EVERY kid, which is to say that he was always looking for that special talent, or spark, or curiosity that made a kid unique. Nor was he just a music teacher, a conductor, an educator; he came to music relatively late, having gotten a Bachelor’s degree in history and political science. He wanted kids to grow up and develop and keep developing through their lives, and if that meant music–great.
The complete blog post includes an interview with Dr. Rabin.