Robert Marek was born on January 20, 1915, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin,
the only son of Michael and Emma Marek. Born Robert Karl Marek, he
invariably used the middle initial "C."
Robert Marek attended the University of Wisconsin (Madison) before
transferring to Kansas State College at Emporia, where he received his
Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education in 1940. He received a
Master of Music degree from Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY, in
1949, specializing in Music Theory with a minor in Composition. His
Master's Thesis concerned high school music theory programs. He was
awarded a Ph.D. in Music Theory with a minor in Musicology by Eastman
School of Music in January, 1958. His doctoral thesis concerned harmonic
sequences in the music of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Gluck and
Cherubini.
His education was interrupted by World War II. He was stationed
in England, participated in the D-Day invasion of Europe, and served in
Belgium, rising to the rank of Sergeant. He was fond of telling that he
became part of a US Army unit comprised largely of "illiterate Cajuns,"
and he became company clerk, by default.
Dr. Marek taught strings in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, public
schools, and both strings and orchestra in the Planeview Public Schools,
Wichita, Kansas. He then accepted a job at Western State College,
Gunnison, Colorado, teaching Strings, Orchestra, Music Education and
Orchestration from 1949 to 1957. Concurrently, he taught summer music
theory classes to High School students at the National Music Camp in
Interlochen, Michigan, for two years.
Robert Marek joined the faculty of the University of South Dakota
in 1957, teaching Music Theory, Counterpoint, Composition and Style
Analysis. He also served the University in 1968 and 69 as Acting Dean of
Fine Arts, and as Director of Admissions, from 1969 through 1973. He was
a member of multiple departmental, college and university level committees
at USD, including University Planning Committee, Graduate Council, Student
Affairs, Placement Service Review, College of Fine Arts Development,
President of the University Senate, chair of the Faculty Council, and
member of the committee that framed the constitution establishing the
University Senate. He also served as President of the University of South
Dakota chapter of the Council on Higher Education. He served as a guest
lecturer in USD classes in aesthetics and general humanities and arts. He
appeared as a speaker on music subjects at a wide range of conventions and
meetings of music organizations.
In the 1960s, he produced and hosted a series of eighteen live
music broadcasts on public television station KUSD-TV. He saw this
series as an important advancement in the cultural mission of the early
"educational" television service in South Dakota.
In his early years at USD, Dr. Marek also collaborated with Dr.
Wayne Knutson, providing incidental music for a series of musical dramas,
including Dream Valley, which premiered in 1960. Portions of Dream Valley
were broadcast on the Voice of America, and Sioux City television station
KVTV. The Mirrored Maze was a "musical fantasy," on the subject "What is
a University?" produced for the 75th anniversary of the University of
South Dakota, and again for the 100th anniversary. With text by Wayne
Knutson, he also wrote three one-act operas, Prosopa, Arabesque and the
unperformed Phoenix.
Robert Marek's Cantata for a Dedication, with a text by USD
Professor John Milton, was performed in 1974 for the opening of USD's
Warren Lee Center for the Fine Arts. The third movement of the Cantata
was performed in 1976 at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in
Washington, DC.
Marek played the viola, performing, for many years, in the
University Orchestra, Sioux City Symphony, Sioux Falls Symphony, and other
groups. He was also active in the musical community in the Black Hills,
where he and his wife spent summers for many years at a vacation home in
Silver City, S.D. He served on the board of the Black Hills Playhouse, and
attended or participated in many musical events. He conducted the summer
concert series of the Black Hills Chamber Music Society in 1975 and 1976,
with three concerts each summer at the Dahl Fine Arts Center, in Rapid
City, S.D.
In 1976 he arranged three pieces by South Dakota pioneer composer
Felix Vinatieri, which were then performed by a wind ensemble. Dr. Marek
conducted significant research into the life and works of Vinatieri, who
had served as bandmaster for George Custer, during Custer's encampment
near Yankton, S.D.
The South Dakota Board of Regents named Robert Marek an Emeritus
Professor in 1982, and then-President of USD, Charles Lien, recognized him
for 25 years of Service to the University. In 1983, the South Dakota
Music Educator's Association presented him the Distinguished Service Award
for 39 years of service to young people and devotion to Music
Education.
Following his formal retirement, Dr. Marek remained active. Along
with his wife, Leona, he taught at Morningside College, Sioux City, Iowa,
for two years. In 1985 he wrote two articles about South Dakota
composers, based on a series of interviews and surveys, leading to
formation of the Association of South Dakota Composers.
Robert Marek was, first and foremost, a composer of "serious
music." At the time of his formal retirement in 1982, his "Catalogue" of
composed works included 21 chamber music selections, 7 solo instrumental
works, 14 orchestral pieces, 8 band and wind ensemble works, 26
arrangements and transcriptions, 37 vocal and choral pieces, 8 theatre
works, and 5 organ preludes. He continued composing throughout his
retirement. His final work was an uncompleted string quartet.
Robert Marek married the former Leona Pratt on April 20, 1946, in her home
town of Black River Falls, Wisconsin. Leona, who died in 1997, was an
accomplished cellist whose legacy remains in hundreds of students she
taught over almost fifty years. Robert and Leona Marek are buried in
Vermillion, S.D.'s Bluff View Cemetery, within a mile of their home of
over thirty years. They are survived by their only child, Michael, and his
family, also of
Vermillion, S.D.