BEAT GENERATIONS The walls of studio C38 tell the stories of countless percussionists—and the professor who loves them all. BY ERICH BURNETT PHOTO BY TANYA ROSEN-JONES ’97
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Michael Rosen has devoted a lifetime to teaching percussion at Oberlin. The evidence can be found in the litany of talented students he has sent forth to careers in music—and in movies, ministry, medicine, and other disciplines. And it’s all over the walls of the only space he’s called home in 43 years on campus: C38 in the conservatory’s Central Unit. There, Rosen has amassed innumerable instruments and concert posters and framed pictures—including a makeshift shrine made up of dozens of photos that chronicle four decades of smiling percussionists and their amiable teacher, posing at the picnic he has hosted for them every single spring since the beginning. Interspersed among them are photos of friends,
colleagues, and mentors who have passed through Rosen’s orbit over the years. And when Rosen himself was celebrated last fall by the Percussive Arts Society, a flood of those same memories flowed straight from the walls of C38 and out through his humbled words. “I am so grateful to all the students I have had, for teaching me and for giving me the honor of allowing me to pass on to them my knowledge and experience,” he said in acceptance of the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award. “I came to Oberlin with every intention of having a place where I could practice and prepare for my next audition. To my delight, I realized that I had actually found my calling, and that teaching was my future.”