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June 01, 1990 - Image 76

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1990-06-01

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

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ENTERTAINMENT

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61

,Witititch

Maui's Mark Gottlieb
Is A Composer In Paradise

Delicious News for Every Body!

WENDY ROLLIN

Special to The Jewish News

L

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FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 1990

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I

ast fall, Detroit-born
Mark Gottlieb sailed
from L.A. to Hawaii.
During evenings at sea, he
listened to music on a small
stereo. With the accompani-
ment of Mahler and Pacific
rhythms, the 65-foot trimaran
he navigated completed its
passage from the mainland to
Maui.
After a 38-year-life-voyage
through conflicting currents,
it would seem that Gottlieb
has finally reached his port of
destiny: classical composition.
No more side trips. No more
detours. And no apologies.
"I was always torn between
being a composer — and then
trying to make a living," he
says. "I always wondered
what I should do with this
musical thing that was there
inside me.
"There's a need in people to
be accepted by other people.
We all love Van Gogh's pain-
ting. Right? We would all like
to own one of his works. But,
would you let your daughter
go out with him? Probably
not."
Up until about two years
ago, Gottlieb had charged a
dual course for his life's work.
To be an artist or a solvent,
solid citizen? That was the
constant question.
"I'd say, 'I should do this
and should do that. I should
do everything but this music
stuff.' Now I say, 'Forget it.' I
just can't afford it — inside
me. There's too much I have to
say, musically. I'm making up
for lost time."
Vacillating no longer, Got-
tlieb began creating new
material and forging musical
connections. A friend got him
a commission in Stuttgart,
West Germany, to write some
songs for a singer. This past
April, the Warren Symphony
presented one of his composi-
tions, "Above The
Timberline," a brooding piece
that stirs and churns like a
witch's-brew sky over a dark
forest.
He is currently working on
something for the Philhar-
monic Symphony Orchestra
of Florida. And, he says, the
director of Detroit Institute of
Arts' Brunch with Bach
series has expressed interest
in doing an entire program of
Gottlieb music.
Tracing the source of the
songs within, Gottlieb says,
"My style is very Russian. I
love Russian music. When I

Gottlieb loves making music in Maui.

was a child and we'd visit my
grandpa, we'd have dinner
and then go into his den
where he'd play Russian
tunes for us on the mandolin.
"I'm learning as I get older.
Why is it when I hear a piece
of Shostakovich or Ernest
Bloch or Jewish melodies,
why do I fall apart? Why do I
start crying so easily when I
hear these things? In my
family, other than my grand-
pa's stuff, we never had that
music in my house. My dad
used to bring home Peggy Lee
albums.
"Now, I feel there's a
genetic relationship between
that stuff and me. I have to
say, this is the Jewishness in-
side me. I can't deny the fact
that there's this blood of all
that experience inside me.
And I indulge in it."
Gottlieb's discovery of his
true voice and vocation was
made gradually, in different
locales, one revelation at a
time. When he was a year old,
his family moved from Detroit
to California. Later, after his
parents separated, his father
returned to Michigan.
Gottlieb remained with his
mother in California. Grow-
ing up, fascinated by the
ocean, he went sailing and
built sailboats. And he was
always involved in music,
always playing something —
clarinet, French horn, piano.
Performing in a duo with a
friend, in 1971, Gottlieb had
a close encounter of the pop
stardom kind. "I was offered

a contract with Capitol
Records," he says, "to record
my music and be a young rock
and roll type.
"At the time, I was getting
interested in other music. I
was just discovering "Rhap-
sody in Blue" and all these
great pieces. The man who
was my producer wanted me
to change my music a little
bit. I was 19, very impres-
sionable, very idealistic. And
so, I said, 'No.'
"I thought since it was so
easy when I was 19 to get in
that position, I'll just do what
I want because obviously, it's
going to be this easy all the
time. The joke was on me," he
concludes with a laugh.
In 1975, Gottlieb moved
back to Michigan, where he
went to work with his father,
Bernard Gottlieb, a builder.
"I became a very fine wood-
worker, actually," he says. "I
was able to make a decent liv-
ing that way. Of course, in the
back of my mind I'm saying,
`I should be writing music: "
The passing years brought
more transitions: another
move to California, marriage
to a cellist, another return to
Michigan, and the dissolution
of his marriage. Beneath all
the variations, Gottlieb still
heard his recurrent theme —
"What am I going to do with
my life?"
Wherever he was, whatever
he did, Gottlieb's "musical
thing" never went away. In
1979, he wrote the score for
an opera called "The Tiny

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