These -wo musicians have learned much from each other.

SUZANNE CHESSLER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

S

he plays piano; he
prefers guitar. She has
taught private stu-
dents; he has been at
the front of college
classrooms. She has
perfonned as a soloist
and with choral groups; he has
performed as a soloist and with
jazz and rock combos. She has
used technology in its simplest
forms; he has used technology in
its most complex stages.
She is Rose Morgan, a part-
time music therapist at Botsford
Continuing Health Center and
the leader of the Rose Morgan
Singers, a group that entertains
in the metropolitan area, charg-
ing audiences according to what
they can pay.
He is David Mash, assistant
dean of curriculum for academ-
ic technology at the Berklee
School of Music in Boston and an
international entertainer who
uses the latest computers and
synthesizers to produce music he
has composed.
They are mother and son.
"While David was growing up,
I often wondered if he got the mu-
sic from me," Mrs. Morgan, 80,
said. "But then I decided that all
music really has to
come from the
heart. You can do
things if you do
them from the
heart, and you
can inspire people
if you love what
you're doing. I
think David is
inspiring people
around the
world with this
new field."
Her son, who
has been called
the "industry's,
leading evan-
gelist for the
marriage of
music and
technology" by
Rolling Stone
magazine,
just returned
from a lec-

David Mash is
into electronic
music.

ture/performance
trip to Tel Aviv,
Athens and
Barcelona and has
a slightly different
view of his moth-
er's influence.
"I think that my
mother's interest
certainly had a big
impact on my love
for music," said Mr.
Mash, 42, who
works at the
world's largest in-
dependent music
school intent on
preparing students
for what is current
in the industry.
"It's hard to be
around someone
who loves music as Rose Morgan gets seniors to participate.
much as my moth-
er does and not
have that rub off on you. From Southfield apartment for weekly
my earliest memories, our house rehearsals. They prepare classi-
was always filled with music, and cal, pop and ethnic songs for con-
I'm sure that was a major foun- certs at nursing homes,
dation for my love and interest in senior-citizen apartments, syna-
gogues and churches. The group
music."
Mrs. Morgan started playing has been performing for 35 years.
Years ago with her private stu-
the piano before her 9th birthday,
sitting in on a friend's lessons and dents, she turned to recording
then practicing on her friend's pi- technology so that they could
hear themselves play, make their
ano.
After her father decided to buy own evaluations and have sou-
a piano, he watched as his daugh- venirs of their work. At the nurs-
ter learned quickly and was in- ing home, she arranged for a
vited to perform on radio and keyboard to be put on a mobile
with the Detroit Symphony Or- platform so she could bring live
music to residents unable to leave
chestra.
Mrs. Morgan became an ac- their rooms.
When she talks about a rock
companist with the Detroit Pub-
lic Schools upon her graduation 'n' roll jubilee, unlike her son's
from Cass Technical High School modern music, she is referring to
and kept that job until marrying people who remain in rocking
chairs and wheelchairs as she en-
and starting a family.
She instructed students in her courages their participation in
home until becoming a widow in musicales.
During visits to her son's home
1967, when she briefly returned
to being an accompanist before in Massachusetts, Mrs. Morgan
securing her nursing-home job. is fascinated by his cutting-edge
It was full time until a few years equipment that allows a trained
ago, when she pared it down to operator to reproduce music, de-
cide which instruments are heard
three days per week.
Along the way, she formed the and change keys and tones. She
Mother Singers, which turned recalls how his interest evolved.
"We met some people who had
into the Rose Morgan Singers,
and established the Sholem Ale- a guitar in their house, and David
ichem Choral Group, which par- picked it up, started strumming
ticipates in High Holiday services and fell in love with it at age 8 or
9," reminisced Mrs. Morgan, who
and Oneg Shabbat programs.
Mrs. Morgan and her second gave David a professional-qual-
husband, Hyman, invite the 22- ity guitar for his bar mitzvah.
"He started his own band and
member singing group to their

was in the Battle of the Bands at
the Jewish Community Center.
I'll never forget his first synthe-
sizer and how he used to try dif-
ferent sounds when he was still
a student at Cooley High School."
Although Mr. Mash entered a
pre-med program at Oakland
University, he ultimately decid-
ed he wanted a music profession
and transferred to Berklee, where
his pioneering efforts have been
described on such programs as
the "CBS Evening News," "New-
ton's Apple" and "All Things Con-
sidered."
"I became interested in jazz
composition and orchestration,"
Mr. Mash said. "While I was a
student, they asked me if I would
teach guitar because I had been
playing and studying for so many
years.
"Upon graduation, they -offered
me the job of teaching composi-
tion, arranging and ear training,
so I stayed."
A hand injury in 1977 forced
Mr. Mash to stop playing guitar
for several years, but he quickly
moved his talents to synthesiz-
ers, which, at the time, could only
be played with one hand.
"I began playing professional-
ly almost immediately, and three
weeks after I started my band
went on tour, opening for Dave
Brubeck's quartet," he said.
"Through Dave Brubeck's son,

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