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, M a u re r ' s w n a i r hee nita
By Dana Drazenovich
By Dave DeLand
George Maurer is pedaling through Newfoundland, his bicycle tires spinning like the reels of a cassette tape as he records the people and places along the path of his annual cross-country bike ride. Maurer ’88 feels a kinship with the 1980s-era Onkyo dualtape cassette recorder that duplicated his first solo piano release, Behind the Pine Curtain, spinning away in Patrick Hall while he was earning his music composition degree. More than 30 years later, that old tape deck still holds a spot in his Nicollet Island living room, more metaphoric than nostalgic as Maurer plans his sixth annual epic bicycle trek this summer in Vietnam. “I see these bike rides more and more as being an opportunity, sort of like the wheels of the bike are like a cassette tape that’s recording a trail as they go through
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and the wheels hit the pavement and you’re soaking up information, you’re soaking up stories,” he said. Maurer is best known as an acclaimed pianist and composer who has shared the stage with rockers ranging from Eric Clapton to Dan Aykroyd to Bruno Mars, won a slew of awards including a McKnight Composer Fellowship, been commissioned to write original music for the likes of St. Paul Ballet and packed many a Midwest venue with the George Maurer Jazz Group. Recent highlights include touring with the Midtown Men— starring the four original leads of Broadway’s Jersey Boys —