Classical Ambassador

Marvin Rosen’s Classical Discoveries on WPRB-FM introduces listeners to musical gems by lesser-known composers.

By: Susan Van Dongen

"I don’t put anything on the air that I don’t love," says Marvin Rosen, who scours used record stores, Internet sites and catalogs in search of the obscure.

   Listeners of WPRB-FM’s Classical Discoveries would never know that host Marvin Rosen works in such spartan surroundings. When he plays a CD by American composer Amy Scurria and the lush sounds of the Peabody Symphony go out over the airwaves, you’d think Mr. Rosen was sitting at a custom-made mahogany console in the penthouse of a great New York classical radio station, with a professional engineer running the board while he carefully selects the music.
   But no, here he sits in an old wooden chair, hunkered down in the basement broadcast facilities that look like a 20-something bachelor’s bear pit — perhaps belonging to John Cusack’s music-loving character from the movie High Fidelity.
   The walls of Princeton University’s WPRB-FM are lined with floor-to-ceiling racks of CDs, vinyl albums with scraggly edges and, surprisingly, a number of 45s. The indoor-outdoor carpeting is a little frayed in spots and the DJs have scribbled graffiti on the graying acoustic tiling.
   Mr. Rosen doesn’t seem to notice. He sips his second jumbo container of coffee, considering a track called "Niagara Falls" by composer Michael Daugherty. In between he might throw in a rollicking 16th century Polish dance, a recent recording by the Kronos Quartet or a rarely heard composition by Italian composer Giovanni Sollima.
   "Rarely heard" is the key phrase here.
   Classical Discoveries — broadcast from 6 to 11 a.m. Tuesdays on WPRB 103.3 FM — is Mr. Rosen’s labor of love. He calls it a "unique radio program devoted to little-known repertoire of all musical periods, with an emphasis on the old and the new."
   Mr. Rosen, a classical pianist, musicologist and music teacher, eschews the well-known names from 18th and 19th centuries, preferring to introduce his listeners to Kalevi Aho, John Taverner and Zurab Nadarejshvili. These are not random picks from the radio station’s collection. Mr. Rosen spends hours planning Classical Discoveries, culling the tracks from his own extensive collection.
   "I don’t put anything on the air that I don’t love," he says.
   He scours used record stores, Internet sites and catalogs in search of the obscure. Mr. Rosen is especially delighted with the music he’s found from the Baltic region, as well as nations formerly governed by the Soviet Union.
   "I’ve heard wonderful music from Latvia, Azerbaijan and Estonia," he says. "There are so many musicians and composers out there creating this beautiful, expressive music. They’ve worked hard to craft it, and so many people don’t even know it exists."
   The radio show, now in its fifth year, is a testament to Mr. Rosen’s natural musical curiosity. Its central goal is to support lesser-known composers and their works, and to share this neglected music with folks who wouldn’t hear it otherwise. Mr. Rosen volunteers his services, rising at 3:45 a.m. to get the station on the air by 6 a.m.

Currently on the staff at the Westminster Conservatory of Music of Rider University, Mr. Rosen also taught piano at the New School for Music in Kingston.

   Classical Discoveries, as well as much of the other programming on WPRB, is a breath of fresh air for fans of old-fashioned, free-format FM radio.
   Commercial and even some non-commercial broadcasting has become so heavily programmed and homogenous it seems the whole country is listening to the same 100 tunes. Perhaps radio stations underestimate the public’s curiosity, thinking they’d better play it safe with well-known composers and their music, keeping a careful distance from 20th century music.
   Potential listeners may mistakenly think Mr. Rosen’s contemporary classical show means five hours of atonal noise by modern experimentalists.
   "That’s what’s so frustrating," Mr. Rosen says. "So much of this music is very lovely. Listeners often tell me that they didn’t know new music could be so melodious and beautiful."
   Born in North Jersey, Mr. Rosen was introduced to classical music by his mother, a piano teacher. His parents frequently took him into New York to hear the symphony, but he also remembers being glued to his transistor radio, listening to everything from Top 40 to classical.
   Mr. Rosen has a bachelor’s in music and music education from The College of New Jersey, a master’s in musicology from the Manhattan School of Music and a doctorate from Teacher’s College at Columbia University. Currently on the staff at the Westminster Conservatory of Music of Rider University, Mr. Rosen also taught piano at the New School for Music in Kingston. He has written numerous liner notes and recorded several CDs for Koch International Classics. He performs frequently in the area, most recently for the Steinway Society in March.
   He met his wife, a native of Poland, while working at Princeton’s U-Store as the buyer for the music and audio department. Beata Rosen shares her husband’s enthusiasm for music and is the Webmaster for his comprehensive Web site. Because WPRB is also broadcast online, Mr. Rosen has heard from listeners as far away as Greece, Azerbaijan and Australia.
   "We can learn so much about other cultures by listening to their music," Mr. Rosen says. "Especially with all the tensions in the world right now, music is a powerful medium for communication. Music is a wonderful way for us to begin to understand each other. I think it can really be considered the ambassador of peace."
Marvin Rosen hosts Classical Discoveries on Princeton University’s WPRB, 103.3 FM, Tues. 6-11 a.m.
On the Web: http://ourworld.cs.com/clasdis