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MICHIGAN
MUSIC |
August
1, 2001 "BEST OF" ISSUE |
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Meet Ted Strunck... Renaissance Guy
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INTERVIEW & PHOTOS BY PT QUINN
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Ted is many things...
but this is about his music
and how it impacts Michigan music for decades to come..
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I first met Royal Oak resident Ted Strunck about 20 years ago. He and
his wife Jane had built a rather impressive solar house, and I produced
a segment about it in a TV show I put together called “Sunspot” at a
local access cable station. He took us through a grand tour of his home
which included a greenhouse, solar panels, super insulation and a whole
lot of heart. In the late seventies the Strunck’s with the help of some
really good friends built it with their own hands utilizing recycled
materials like barn beams and hardwood floors from structures slated for
demolition , and wherever they could find them. The results are
impressive and the house is doing just fine. One thing Ted built is an
upper loft which serves as a music room with its piano and space for
home recording. |
Ted is many things... a husband, father, builder,
musician, teacher, and purveyor of making the extraordinary seem
unremarkable in his understated demeanor. But this is about his music
and how it impacts a lot of kids. Born in Detroit 52 years ago, he was
raised in Muskegon from the tender age of 2. The music bug hit Ted when
he picked up his first guitar at the age of 8, and it has been with him
ever since throughout the course of his life. He played guitar in his
first rock and roll band in the 7th grade quite frankly because it
became second nature. His agile fingers grace the fretboard in a
seemingly effortless way as he floats about and investigates the
incantations and nuances of the sound. |
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...picked up his first guitar at the age of
8 |
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The first time I heard Ted, I
thought he was a pop star. Never flashy, his compositions reminded me in
substance of the Beatles. He even sold a few of his songs to a couple of
Canadian top 40 groups. Ted gave me copies of a few of his self produced
cassettes. The one I still have goes from produced pop songs on one side
to a Vivaldi guitar solo on the other. I always had respect for Ted on a
number of levels. Sure, the solar house saves the family money, and adds
to the quality of their lifestyle while reducing the need of fossil
fuels. That’s a given in it’s design. Ecology is something Ted and Jane
have always championed. When Ted was in the 8th grade his Dad moved the
family to Ann Arbor where Ted continued to take guitar lessons and play
in several dance bands. later while attending Michigan State, he
considered but rejected majoring in music. Now he recalls: “ I didn’t
want to hate music, dislike music. I thought if I took it at the formal
university level I might. So I stayed away from it”. Ted started
playing folk music in the coffee house circuit with a group called
“Touchstone” who got some nibbles but no contracts from a few record
labels. |
After traveling to Europe by himself in his freshman year, Ted
decided he wanted to become a professional musician. After a 4 year
stint at the Renaissance Center coffee house downtown Detroit, Ted
re-examined what to do next. In ‘91 he pulled out his teaching
certificate and went to work at Upland Hills School in Oxford Michigan. He found the private school much to his likening. It was conducive to
the encouragement of the performing arts and had an ecology awareness
center across a gorge. So Ted started teaching music to youngsters.
Then, his building background surfaced. Over a 2 year period, he and his
students went to work and built a wonderful wooden bridge across the
gorge making it easy to cross over to the ecology center and turning it
into a performance venue... where Ted and fellow instructor Karen Moore
mold kids into becoming singers and actors in productions like Alice in
Wonderland. Ted adapted his own music. The kids loved it and now every
year they produce a new musical. |
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Ted and Jane have a couple of kids, Jesse and Stephanie. They all live
an idealic but modest lifestyle that’s somewhat obscured at the end of a
dead end street next to a golf course adding to the view. When I hooked
up with Ted for this story, he was busy working out the details of
Alice. I spent an enjoyable few hours watching Ted and Karen rehearse
their students for some shows coming up that weekend.
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...he was busy working out the details of
Alice. |
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During a break,
this is what he had to say.....
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PT Quinn: Why Music? Ted Strunck:
It’s the most spiritual activity a human can do in the physical plane.
It’s a bridge. A non material thing that affects people deeply. I like
the power of music.
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PT: What inspired you to give up a professional music career to began a new
profession teaching kids? Ted:
When I was in college, I took education classes. I took whatever I felt
like taking. At the end of my junior year I piled them together into a
teaching certificate. I actually graduated with one in ‘71, but I never
used it until 20 years later. One of the changes came after Jane and I
adopted 2 kids. That changed my life incredibly. I guess I wanted a
normal schedule. Being home and awake when they’re home and awake. A
musicians life is pretty rough. It can kill you if you let it. I had
enough of it really. I just didn’t want to play in Ed’s Bar on 8 mile or
whatever it was going to be. I didn’t want to leave Detroit. I was
making good money as a musician. My goals just changed.
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PT: In your solar house, you have a music room
in the upper loft. Is there an ambiance there for
creativity? Ted:
There is. It’s where I write most of my music. Living inside a
house that was once inside your head is a fulfilling experience.
When a person looks around a solar house they’ve built, it
becomes more than a shelter. It’s a mental state. It grew out of
an awareness of environmental issues. |
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We had to come up with materials
that were free, easy to work with, and structurally sound. |
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PT: That bridge across the gorge is pretty
impressive. Tell us about that. Ted: The
director walked me from the school down the gully over to the
center. I thought it was too tough and I didn’t want to be
lugging my instruments up and down that valley. And I thought what
a neat place to build a bridge. Several years later when I was
given the opportunity to teach the oldest group of students, 7th
and 8th graders... I didn’t want to be trapped in a class room.
I wanted to get them outside and wear them out. I’d get them
back into the classroom and they’d be tired... ready to
sit there and listen. The director said we could build it, but no
money was available. We had to come up with materials that were
free, easy to work with, and structurally sound. It took a couple
of years. Now we’re building a geodesic dome greenhouse.
Next year we’ll try to replicate the cyclical systems of the
planet. Water, air, pollination, learn about them within the
confines of the dome. |
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PT: In the middle of all this you’re
teaching kids music. Ted: I love being a
teacher. I love working with children. What they teach me.
Kids demand the best... honesty all the time. They make me want to
be the best I can be every day I come here. I like their
youthfulness. I like passing on my values about the natural world.
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I love working with children. |
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PT: All that plus music is a
noble cause. Ted: Oh yeah. Some of them
go off to become professional musicians. One girl I had a few
years ago put out her first CD and we’re all excited about that.
Another at Interlochen is a wiz-bang piano player and composer. A
lot of my kids write songs and learn to play guitar and drums. I
teach
the entire school music.
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PT: You and your director Karen Moore are now
doing a production of Alice in Wonderland. This is part of your
philosophy about teaching. Getting them into performance. Ted:
Yes. We feel the performing arts are a great teaching
tool. We try to incorporate values. One piece is about how
important good friends are... what they mean.. what they can be to
you. We’ve written shows about the natural world. Songs about
being involved in the dance of life. We wrote a song about heroes.
How you can change the world and make a difference.
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PT: What advise would you give somebody who
wants to teach music? Ted: You have to
take courses in academics and music. It’s a double whammy.
It’s really tough to do that. If you teach anything, it should
be
something you love. What the students leave with are the things
that you as a teacher love. I like to model my students into
figuring out things they don’t know. What it takes to do a task.
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PT: One last question. If you could spend a
month on a desert island with somebody, who would that be? Ted:
Wow! For the intellectual stimulation, spending time
with Albert Einstein would be fantastic... All the questions I
could ask! |
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