Musicians For Musicians (MFM) Presents: “Music Is Essential” ZOOM Webinar #12 with MFM Member Ron Wasserman Speaking on: Transcribing Recorded Music for Live Performance with Dance

Date: Tuesday, November 29, 2022
Time: 4pm to 5:30pm (ET)
Venue: ZOOM
Ticket: free
Please register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwkf-iopzwpGNErm21uOd-b-qZvgWdKWpXC

Webinar description

Ron will talk about and demonstrate the very specialized skill that is transcribing recorded music into notation to be used for dance performances. Music that was composed and recorded by ear, or course must be “reverse engineered” so it can be presented in traditional notation to players for live performances. Ron will discuss his unique process that utilizes a highly developed contrapuntal ear, several software tools, and usually a lot of trial and error. Furthermore, an added layer of complexity are considerations towards the needs of choreographers and dancers, and in being a bridge between them and the composer and conductor. Ron will use examples from several successful projects he has done with the music of Duke Ellington, Max Richter, Wayne Shorter, Solange Knowles and others.

About Ron Wasserman

Ron Wasserman, a fourth generation musician and lifelong New Yorker, has an unusually diverse track record of performing, composing, commissioning, and producing music. Since his first professional gig in 1979 at age 18, Ron has logged well over 6,000 performances in almost every performing arts genre imaginable, since 1988 the majority of them as the principal bassist of the New York City Ballet Orchestra.

Ron has premiered and/or commissioned works by a large array of composers, including Miho Hazama. Rufus Reid, Courtney Bryan, Stephanie Ann Boyd, and himself. In 2017 his New York Jazzharmonic partnered with The Ashley Bouder Project when they started accompanying professional dance concert performances. Together they undertook the process of commissioning composers AND choreographers, with an emphasis on women.

His own jazz and classical music fills now four CDs with several more in the works. One, with his full 17-piece band was recorded in 2019 with a 2023 release.

During the pandemic, Ron started filming dance videos, culminating in his “Curbside Nutcracker,” which garnered a viral half-million views, and his fully produced narrative movie filmed at the Bronx Zoo: “Backstage Pass: Carnival of the Animals.”

At the New York City Ballet, Ron has also arranged, transcribed, and/or conducted works by Wayne Shorter, Stravinsky, Piazzolla, and Solange Knowles’

Backstage Pass: bit.ly/bronxzoomovie

Curbside Nutcracker: https://youtu.be/pH0JLfSKv04

About MFM (https://www.MusiciansForMusicians.org)

MFM seeks to bring together musicians from all disciplines, styles, traditions and localities in the cause of their mutual self-betterment. Whether through education, networking or political action, MFM’s ultimate goal is to elevate the work of all musicians to the level of a true profession.