Mack retires as head of NCMC
BY MARLI GUZZETTA INDEPENDENT ARTS EDITOR
After five and a half years as a good steward of the NCMC/ Nantucket School of Music, Dr. Gerald Mack submitted his resignation as its director last Wednesday. Having elevated the numbers of students and instructors at the school, while also spearheading programs like the NCMC's benefit concert series, Mack is now ready to enjoy more leisure time.

"I love my work with the NCMC/ Nantucket School of Music, but I need more time to visit with my family and friends," Mack said, with his characteristic warmth and gentility.

"It was a very amicable parting," said Mary Saffell, President of the NCMC/Nantucket School of Music's Board of Trustees. "He's done such wonderful things over the last five and half years. He's increased funding, brought in quality teachers to the music school, and he's also done a lot to increase the number of students, which is up to 144 now. Around the time he came on board, it was at 65."

Mack, who still directs the Great Waters Music Festival in Wolfeboro, N.H., has changed every organization with which he's worked for the better during his long and illustrious career. He recounts his accomplishments with the glimmer of a man who has pulled off some amazing scheme - being able to do what he loves so much and so well his whole life.

As a seven year old, Mack began his musical career with violin lessons in Rochester, N.Y. When Mack was in high school, a professor and mentor at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., encouraged him to organize an inter-high school choir named The Gentlemen Songsters. "We were 20 young men who got together each weekend to perform," Mack said. Just as he was about to attend college, a Gannett newspaper chain syndicated a story about the choir, and it became regionally famous. As a college freshman at SUNY Fredonia, Mack found himself driving hours back to Rochester every weekend to direct a choir whose performances had been picked up for syndication on CBS radio.

"That was the beginning of my education in conducting," Mack remembered.

When Mack was drafted into military service during the Korean War, he became the assistant to the post's chaplain at Fort Dix, where he organized the Soldiers Chorus. "When you've got 20,000 men to choose from, you end up with quite a lot of talent," said Mack, who had access to fellow draftees like Artie Shaw. The chorus ended up on Arlene Francis' weekly show on ABC.

After Mack completed his service, he attended Columbia University to earn his graduate degree in Musical Education with Choral concentration. He went on to become the Director of Music at the Congregational Church in Greenwich, Conn., and also taught in area schools for nine years. "It was a great place to teach because the kids all had the interest and the financial ability to pursue music," said Mack, who toured with his students all over the world, including the International Society of Music Educators' Convention in Vienna.

Mack returned to Columbia to earn his Ph.D. in Choral Conduction and Performance, and in 1966 assumed a position as Director of Choral Activities at the respected Hartt School of Music, where he established the Greater Hartford Youth Chorale. In 1978, he also began conducting the Worcester Chorus and Orchestra - collaborating with top-notch musicians from the Boston area and leading the chorus on five successful national tours. While there, he also married his wife, Nancy, an accomplished architect.

By the time he moved to Nantucket in 1999, he had established the Great Waters Music Festival in New Hampshire, collaborated with such notable musicians as Gunther Schuller, Yehudi Menuhin, Aaron Copland, Michael Lancaster and Seiji Ozawa, and also appeared in some of the best venues worldwide, including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Royal Albert Hall and Washington National Cathedral.

NCMC Director Deborah Beale recruited Mack to be an NCMC board member, and he replaced her when she retired from the position.

Mack said his favorite NCMC event during the five and half years he's been at the helm was the World War II show.

"We overflowed the auditorium," remembered Mack, who also called the benefit series his "baby." He's helping to organize one last benefit show, the high-energy Jubliee Singers chorus from Westminster Choir College, who will perform in the NHS auditorium on April 21.

Saffell said the next step for the NCMC/ Nantucket School of Music's board is to convene on April 17 to discuss Mack's successor. "He's done a lot, and we're going to miss him terribly," she said.

JUBILEE SINGERS ON NANTUCKET When: Saturday, April 21, 8 p.m. Where: Mary Walker Memorial Auditorium at

Nantucket High School, Surfside Road

Cost: Two levels of open seating are available at

$25 and $35; reserved, optimum seating can

be purchased at $50.

Tickets are available at Dan's Pharmacy, Mitchell's

Book Corner, and the NCMC office at 11 Centre Street weekdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., or by phone

at 228-3352. I