In the Spotlight

Three male figures jam in a backyard, playing guitar, saxophone, and trombone.

Marc Wolman

“ After about a year of YouTube lessons, and teaching myself, it’s like – wait a minute, I’ve got a music school right down the street. ” Marc Wolman

After retiring from his job as an environmental engineer, Marc Wolman (pictured on right) saw a new opportunity to dive further into practicing music. But, he wondered, what did he want to learn?

He had a lot of options to choose from. As a child, Marc played piano at the very first Belmont Piano Festival (now the Mildred Freiberg Piano Festival at Powers). As a young man, he picked up flute and saxophone. After meeting his wife, a folkdance enthusiast, in the 1970s, Marc dove further into modal music from the Southern Balkans. Over time, Marc also added kaval, a folk flute from the Balkans, to his instrumental abilities.

With his retirement opening up more hours for him to practice music, Marc eventually decided on an instrument which he had previously only taught to himself – saxophone. He says “After about a year of YouTube lessons, and teaching myself, it’s like – wait a minute, I’ve got a music school right down the street.” He read saxophone teacher David Stevens’ biography on Powers’ website, and the rest was history!

The story protagonist, Marc, holds a saxophone and smiles while standing next to his teacher.
Marc stands with his teacher, David, after his first All-School Recital.

Marc says about his and David’s teacher-student relationship: “We met, and kind of have negotiated this relationship between all this music I’m interested in and he doesn’t know anything about, and all of the saxophone playing expertise he has that I don’t really have. So, that’s been a great experiment.”

At Powers, Marc has created a blend of classical and modal music education in a way that feels right for him. He has been bringing his saxophone to Powers’ monthly Modal Music Sessions, where he can work with teacher Tev Stevig to continue playing a wide variety of Balkan music and modal styles.

Marc says: “I’m at the point right now where I really dig studying this classical sax repertoire and learning about saxophone playing from that perspective. But I don’t necessarily want to give up, and I’m not going to give up [playing] all kinds of music.”

Being at Powers means that Marc can continue designing his own musical journey, playing and learning whatever kind of music speaks to him.