Walter E. Sear 1930-2010

[Roger Lewis]

I am saddened to report the passing of Walter E. Sear, former student of the great Bill Bell, Principal Tuba of the Symphony of the Air in New York, and my first teacher.

For many years he has been very active as a sound engineer, specializing in analog recording and has many notable credits to his name. He also worked closely with Cerveny in developing better horns and has a signature mouthpiece out there as well.

For me, he showed me what could be done, how to do it, how to get better and he inspired me to be as good as I could as a musician.

My deepest sympathy and prayers go out to his family.

Roger

[Roger Lewis]

From Consequence of sound:

"R.I.P. Walter Sear
By Alex Young on April 30th, 2010 in News

American recording engineer Walter Sear died yesterday (Apr. 29th). He was 79.

For over three decades, Sear ran the legendary Sear Sound recording studio in New York City. Known for its vast collection of vintage analog recording gear, the studio has served a bevy of well-known clients, including Paul McCartney, Muse, The Killers, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Wilco, Ryan Adams, and Jim O’Rourke.

In addition to his work at the studio, Sear was heavily influential in the development of a portable synthesizer which could be used in live performance. He would also become a performer and composer on the instrument, and created several soundtracks."

[bisontuba]

Sad news...
mark

[cambrook]

I'm very sorry to hear about this, as a child his name was engraved on a tuba I thought was magical - the first "piggy" to come to Australia (as far as I know). I later had the opportunity to buy that instrument, and was always fascinated by the Sear name on it - even more so as I learned more about the man and his influence in many areas of music.

My best wishes go to his family and friends.

[TubaRay]

R.I.P. Walter Sear

[rodgeman]

Sorry to hear about his passing. My prayers are for his family.

[hbcrandy]

I am greatly saddened and shocked. I communicated with Walter via E-Mail several months ago and was invited to stop in and see him the next time I was in New York. Walter sold me my first CC tuba, a Cerveney tall model.

Is there a public memorial service planned? If so, when and where?

Rest in peace, friend.

[Toad Away]

Rest In Peace, Walter Sear.

Many thanks for all the work you did on the
Sear & Waldeck huge book of orchestral
excerpts from the late 60s.
The etudes at the end were great, also!

[skeath]

Very sorry to hear of his passing. Walter Sear holds a legendary place in the tuba world. I still consider his tuba duets to be among the best of all time, and a real workout for the players. I have fond memories of playing in a tuba sextet with him, Richard Frazier, Walter's daughter (also a tuba player), and two other people, in the dormitory at Indiana University in 1973 (?), at the First International Symposium.

R.I.P., Walter.

[Rick Denney]

I will pull out my Sear Duets in his memory. Any takers?

They never leave my music stand.

Rick "who'll take them to rehearsal Tuesday to see if the young'un wants to try them out" Denney

[jeopardymaster]

Sad news indeed. My sincere sympathies to his family and friends.

I bought a marvelous Cerveny monster BBb from him in 1978. Still kicking myself for my numbskull decision to sell it some years later to finance the purchase of a computer - that soon became about as functional as a boat anchor.

During our visit I mentioned the 2 books of duets. He smiled and told me "The first volume is for fun. The second is for blood."

[bdaniel]

Mr. Sear certainly leaves a legacy to the tuba world. I met him sometime in the mid-late 70's when he was selling the Cerveny tubas at a music educator conference. I seem to remember the Cerveny line had the Sear name stamped on some of them. I use his duets with my students on a regular basis. His etude book is quite good too. This coming week is the last week of lessons for the semester, but I plan to read a Sear duet with each student in their lesson.

[Alex C]

Along with his contributions to electronic music Walter Sear should be remembered by tuba players for his contributions to the development of the tuba in the USA. He began importing Mahillion-DuPrins and Cerveny tubas in the early 1960's, possibly earlier. It is hard to imagine, but at the time, there was only one Mirafone importer on the West Coast and Custom Music importing Alexander tubas. Sear relatively low-cost, good quality instruments were the first good tubas many American college students ever owned.

His Sear-Helleberg mouthpiece (in solid nickle-silver) is a fine example of a Helleberg. He and Lew Waldeck put together the first real tuba excerpt book for tubas. It was massive in size and covered most of the major pieces played in orchestras of that period. There were a couple of duet books available for tuba before Walter wrote the "Advanced Duets" sometime in the 60's. His solid compositional skills and musicianship produced the most musical duets available for the next twenty years.

Several solos of his are still played, I assigned the Sonatina to a young student this year.

Obviously, his life did not begin and end with the tuba. His work deveoping electronic instruments (a gift and a curse to us analog musicians) is better told by others, however it would be hard to minimize his contributions to the development of the tuba and tuba players.

[Kevin Hendrick]

Very sad to hear of his passing. I bought one of the Cerveny CCs from him in 1974 for college, still have it, and have always enjoyed playing it.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Sear.

[Phil Dawson]

I bought my first horn from him at his shop in NYC in about 1969. The shop was amazing as he had about 75 different models of tubas. I of course didn't have a clue about what I was doing but he set me up with a good new horn (miraphone) clone with a small blemish near the bell, a nice gig bag, and a hard case for $700. This also came with some cool stories about Bill Bell and other tuba playing tales. He was kind not to take advantage of a young player. He will be missed by the tuba community and the recording community.
Phil

[Mcordon1]

John Bardo has told me some pretty interesting stories about Walter Sear.

He owns an interesting Sear horn. It's an old Cerveny Kaiser 4V CC with a fairly small bell and a bore of .846

I'll have John post some stories next time I see him, I'm sure you'll enjoy them!

[EdFirth]

I had the good fortune to spend quite a bit of time at Mr Sear's establishment while I was with the band at West Point in the early 70's.He was always gracious, patient, and generous with his time. We traded alot of horns back and forth as I was 20 years pld and wanted to try something else about every other week. He'd always trot out a bunch of horns and listen and give teriffic feedback. He introduced me to Arnold Jacobs when Chicago came to town to play Fantastique and I let him use ny Kaiser Cerveny C as a demo at the first Tuba conference at Bloomingtin in 1973 as he had sold all of his stock. Always a gentleman and a behind the scenes giant in the world of tubas. Rest in Peace Mr Sear. Ed

[jtuba]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/arts/ ... odayspaper" target="_blank

The NY Times obit

[pigman]

please join the facebook page rest in peace Walter E Sear and post your story
http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.ph ... 419&v=wall" target="_blank

Ray Noguera