Introduction, hello, and welcome
here we go, eh?
Well, I told myself I wouldn’t do one of these. It’s hard enough keeping up with flooding messages, gig requests, friends and family, and the works AND SCHOOL. Plus, will anyone really read these? I know friends and colleagues who dive into their “blogs” or “newsletters” with little to no response from their readers, who end up abandoning the upkeep of it due to the lack of reward. I warn you, my reader(s), I won’t really edit these besides the basic spell check. These are my thoughts, unfiltered, and imperfect. So if you see something heinous, please forgive me.
I find it funny that I even considered starting this journey here. My student, Alex Baxter, uses this site for x-ray scan discussions, electronic music talks, and more. He recommend I try it, so here we are. The irony of it all is that I hate writing. I find it cumbersome, exhausting, and really I don’t think I’m good at it. Even now, as I draft this, I should be writing my lecture paper for my degree, but alas, here I am procrastinating as per usual. I’m a master procrastinator, the most recent accomplishment (there is sarcasm here, trust me) was stalling a paper by an entire year just to complete it a week before its due date. I passed, but still, I really need to work on actually getting work done in a timely manner. Hopefully, working on this will spur me to actually focus in on my paper, and find the flow I so desire.
Now, onto the name of this…whatever you want to call this cluster of words. “Need More Rosin” somehow came as a natural name for the newsletter/blog. I am a cellist, and in fact, I do need rosin. If you know me personally, if presented with a musical issue, I will always lean in on two responses: needs more rosin, or blame the violas! It does not matter if the issue is musical, intonation questions, rhythmic gestures, or anything else. Inadvertently, my gut response has always been about needing more rosin… So here we are, at my Substack “Need More Rosin”. And for those of you wondering, yes, I do end up finding the solution because almost 100% of the time, rosin is unfortunately not the answer. For the select few who actually do not know what rosin is, click this. That being said and done, let me formally introduce myself so we can get the ball rolling, as they say.
Anyways, about me! My name is Mark Serkin, and I am a cellist, a teacher, performer, gigger, chamber coach, and apparently now, a half baked quasi writer. I’m currently pursuing a doctoral degree in cello performance at Rutgers University. I am at the last wall, the final “boss” level of academia, the light at the end of the tunnel. After the conclusion of this degree, I will be a Doctor. Besides the work I do for the degree, I teach a lot, both privately and through schools (private schools, community college, even at Rutgers). In addition to all that, I definitely spend a good portion of my time playing weddings, cocktail hours, corporate events, and more.
I started cello quite late, taking it seriously at the age of 14, and only really deciding to be a cellist when I was 16, which is very late to make such a difficult life decision when you plan to pursue music. Before, I was a pianist, and a decent one. Over time, the cellos voice became more dominant in my life, and I decided that’s what I will do with my future. In hindsight, definitely the right choice considering my brother became a lawyer and his wife became an eye doctor/surgeon. I’ve seen what they went through to get to their “destinations” in their careers, and holy hell, if I was ever to put any energy into anything, thank the stones it was music. Granted, they’ll make more money than me….forever, but hey, who doesn’t love the typical starving artist trope?
I would say that’s a sum up of who I am…Though if we zoom out, outside of music I do love anime, hiking, a good glass of wine, dogs, making homemade nutella or banana bread, and listening to music that isn’t classical. Sometimes, it is hard to define yourself outside your profession. I definitely struggle with that, considering nearly every car ride is work/music related. Either way, I look forward to discussing music related topics here, dive into some anecdotes, stories, tech talk, do’s and don’ts of gigging, and more. Hell, maybe a review here or there. But…I hope to do all this with the idea that anyone can more or less understand what I am saying, and feel less intimidated talking about classical music, or just music in general.
To close off this hello, rant, introduction, conglomeration of words…whether I get a response or not won’t bother me too much. It is what it is. That being said, I welcome you to my Substack, and am thrilled to have you along for the ride. I’ll attach a photo of myself (in case you actually don’t know me, then especially for you, WELCOME, and Hi, so glad you’re here), as well as a few clips of me playing (click the solo/duo links below).
Cheers, and till the next one!
