About
Rod Ruth
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Everyone is familiar with a plumbing
or electrical contractor, but the term
music contractor may make you go wandering into the yellow
pages to see if it really does exist.
Rod Ruth of Allendale has proved the term not only to be in existence, but that a successful career can be made of it as well.
Prior to becoming active in the commercial field of music, Ruth spent four years with the United States Air Force Band. He said this experience has not only been musically educational, but has influenced his growth as an individual.
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Rod with Maurice Hines in
50th Anniversary Production
of "Guys and Dolls" |
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Ruth hires musicians and singers to perform at social gatherings,
weddings, and events.
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Other sites where he has contracted musicians to perform are Giants
Stadium and Meadowlands Racetrack, bergenPAC, William Carlos Williams Center for the Performing Arts, Westchester Playhouse, Yonkers,
NY, and the Lycian Centre, NY, as well as various theaters, colleges, and
universities in the northeast.
Ruth is a scholarship graduate of the Manhattan
School of Music and received his Master's degree in Music Education from
Columbia University.
Ruth began his theatrical career at the
Playhouse on the Mall, Paramus, NJ, in the early '60s, a theater first produced
by the well known author, Robert Ludlum. Ruth was hired by the theater to
hire the musicians for the orchestra.
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Rod
with Vic Damone and Mel Torme
"Together in Concert" |
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"In my job I have to work on both sides of the fence," Ruth said. "I not only represented and hired the personnel, but at the same time I worked for and represented the producer."
Ruth said he "fell into" the career of contracting musicians. "A position was there and I was there," he said. "I enjoyed the responsibility of dealing with the producer, the musicians and the stars," adding that tact and diplomacy are required when dealing with the wide range of personalities. Through the years, Ruth said the music business has changed tremendously. "The performers that required a 20-piece band are much fewer and far-between now. "When
Frank Sinatra was doing his thing, he wouldn't have anything else but a 30-piece
orchestra behind him. Now,
some stars are proud of the fact they can perform with only a five-piece band. There is a lot of synthesizing now." |
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Mrs.
Rosa Parks
Dedication of
Rosa Parks School
for the Performing
Arts 1986 |
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But the changes haven't affected Ruth. Along with the theater, he is currently employed by various country clubs and corporations and contracts entertainers for private parties and weddings. The
classically trained, pop-oriented performer who plays
saxophone, clarinet, flute, and bassoon sometimes even joins in!
The above was excerpted from The Suburban News
Rod's biography
is listed in the Marquis Publication Who's Who
in America, as well as Global Register's Who's Who in Professionals.
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