Renowned IU professor dies at 91

Gwyn Richards, dean of the Jacobs School of Music, said the loss this week of George J. Gaber will have a profound effect on the school. \n“The alumni owe so much to him for the career they now enjoy,” Richards said. “He’s going to be dearly missed.” \nGaber, 91, renowned percussionist and professor emeritus, died Wednesday at Bloomington’s Meadowood Health Pavilion. \nGaber taught music at Hofstra University and Columbia University but moved to Bloomington in 1960 to help develop the percussion department at IU, according to the IU Alliance of Distinguished and Titled Professors Web site. \nThrough Gaber’s strong love of percussion, he helped develop the percussion ensemble from a novelty to an effective educational tool and serious art form, according to the Web site. \nJohn Tafoya, percussion professor at the Jacobs School of Music, studied with Gaber in the mid-1980s and said there were so many different things that made Gaber special as a professor and a musician. Tafoya said Gaber not only taught his students how to play but gave his perspective on life.\n“He was a bit of a philosopher,” Tafoya said. “We were able to look at things in a greater level, instead of here’s the answer and here’s how to play it.” \nBefore coming to IU, Gaber was a professional musician, playing everything from symphonic, jazz, ballet, opera, TV and film songs. He has performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the NBC, ABC and CBS orchestras, the Minnesota Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony, according to the IU Alliance of Distinguished and Titled Professors Web site. \nWhile performing with the orchestras, Gaber worked with several composers, such as Darius Milhaud, Igor Stravinsky and Lukas Foss. \nAs the reputation of IU percussion grew, Gaber lectured and performed throughout the United States, Europe, South America and Asia, according to the Web site. Gaber visited Mt. Athos, Greece, to study the unique uses of percussion in the religious rituals of the Greek Orthodox Church. \nRichards said Gaber’s background and profession has won him numerous awards, most recently the Lifetime Achievement Award Certificate and Gift from the Sabian Company at the Percussion Arts Society convention in Nashville, Tenn. \n“Beyond all the personal relationships, the professional part of our field will miss him very much,” Richards said. \nAlthough Gaber retired in 1986, Richards said he stayed in touch with the music school on a daily basis. He said because Gaber lived in Bloomington, he was engaged with the current students of the music school. \n“We had lunch on a number of occasions,” Richards said. “We had thoughts about the direction (the music school) was going. He would be happy to share his thoughts.” \nTafoya said he kept in touch with Gaber after he retired and most recently ran into him in September at the Musical Arts Center. He said they had made plans to get together at the end of the semester but Gaber was hospitalized at the end of October. \n“I gave him a call and he was in good spirits,” Tafoya said. “We talked about the percussion departments and he was very pleased that I was going to continue teaching at the IU music school.” \nAlthough Gaber passed away, Tafoya said Gaber’s legacy will leave a lasting impression with the School of Music. \n“George had an addition to his regular family,” Tafoya said. “He had the IU School of Music, the students were really his second family. It’s quite a testament of what he’s done over the last several decades.”