Klarinet Archive - Posting 000614.txt from 1997/07

From: reedman@-----.com
Subj: Death of Rosario Mazzeo
Date: Sun, 20 Jul 1997 19:45:38 -0400

I am extremely saddened to announce the death of my good friend and mentor, Rosario Mazzeo. He
died yesterday at his home in Carmel. He was 86.

I had the wonderful opportunity to study with Rosario from 1976 until 1981. Even though he was
clarinetist/bass clarinetist with the BSO for 33 years, I think that he would say that his
greatest pleasure in life and his greatest success was as a teacher.

Rosario had a phenomenal mind and brought an incredible breadth of musical knowledge and
musicianship to each lesson. He would often astound me by singing an oboe line or bassoon line
in accompaniment to an orchestral excerpt I was playing. His knowledge of the repertoire for
clarinet
was vast and he developed a school of study for his students around a huge list that he had
acquired over the years. It was not unusual for his students to come to lessons loaded down with
4 or 5 tutors, etude books and solos.

He was the ultimate teacher, a master at not only offering students his great fund of knowledge,
but giving one the tools of observation and analysis to continue learning through out life.

Those of us who were blessed to know this man and study with him have come to love him as our
friend and mentor. He will be missed, but his spirit lives on in the way we in turn teach and
approach music making.

Clark W Fobes