Potsdam
profile
T
Mark Slater
hink about your best friend from your time at Potsdam. What is the first memory you associate with them? It could be your freshman dorm room or a club you both belonged to or your favorite table in the Union. Now translate that into music. For Mark Slater ’79, when he thinks about his best friend Randy Smith ’79, that memory is the drum lessons that inspired “The Best Man,” a composition for orchestra that was performed as part of the Crane Concert Band’s Evening Concert Series last April. Slater and Smith first met freshman year in Bowman Hall. While they weren’t roommates, as Slater says, “Crane guys find each other.” Slater was a Trumpet Music Education major while Smith was a Percussion Music Education major. Smith’s commitment to teaching, especially percussion, led him to teach Slater how to play the drums. “Randy urged me to learn the drums. The ability to have some level of proficiency with all instruments is essential for a music teacher; with Randy’s lessons, I developed my percussion skills,” Slater remembered. In April 2002, Smith died unexpectedly of a heart attack in Texas. As Slater flew home from the funeral, he was inspired to compose a piece in Smith’s honor consisting of four components. The first is the Potsdam alma mater integrated in segments throughout the piece. “This was done to pay tribute to Potsdam as the place where our friendship began,” Slater explained. The second component is the focus on percussion. “All of the pieces I have composed have an educational purpose. Because of the many drum lessons Randy gave me, many of the basic skills that percussionists are taught in lessons appear in the piece, such as a paradiddle.” The rationale behind their inclusion is to show percussionists that they need to learn the basics. The third way in which Smith is embodied is through scales consisting of both Smith’s and Slater’s birthdates that are found throughout the piece. Slater took Smith’s birthdate, January 2, 1957, and his own,
12 12
P O T S D A M P EO P LE F A LL 2 0 0 8 P O T S D A M P EO P LE F A LL 2 0 0 8
’79
June 3, 1957, and created a scale for each and interwove them. “At the end, a flute and clarinet each play a scale and they are intertwined,” Slater described. The final way in which Smith is represented in the piece is through the use of wind chimes at the end of the piece. “On the day Randy died, I was outside doing yard work and listening to the wind chimes. I had a feeling that Randy was with me. Shortly after, I received the news that he had passed away.” The performance at Crane in April 2008 is the third performance of the piece, but the most meaningful to Slater. “Having this composition played at Crane, where Randy
and I met and performed so much music together, means the world to me,” Slater said. After graduating from Potsdam, both Slater and Smith received graduate degrees from the University of Texas. Smith remained in Texas while Slater and his family moved to Old Saybrook, CT, where he is now the band director at Old Saybrook Middle School and plays the trumpet for Goodspeed Musicals in East Haddam, CT.