Today's (Hackensack, NJ) Record had a different obituary... Marc S. Balkin, award-winning videographer Tuesday, December 5, 2006 By JAY LEVIN STAFF WRITER Not everyone was twisting and shouting when the Beatles hit America's shores. In the summer of 1964, Marc Stephen Balkin of Hillsdale, a classical violinist and a sophomore at Pascack Valley High School, wrote a letter criticizing the Beatles to Helen Bottel, whose syndicated column appeared in The Record. Lots of angry young fans of the Fab Four lashed out in response. The following year, Marc Balkin formed a group called the Classical Music Lovers of America in protest of a pro-Beatles group. "If less and less people get to listen to good music," the young man told The Record, "we're not going to have much of a musical culture left." By "good music," he meant Beethoven and Mendelssohn, not John, Paul, George and Ringo. Mr. Balkin, who grew up to become an award-winning videographer, died Sunday at 58. The resident of Washington Township in Warren County had complications from pneumonia, his family said. Mr. Balkin, who began playing the violin at age 10, eventually relaxed his opposition to the Beatles, said his father, Seymour Balkin. "He recognized that they were unique in their own right and good musicians," said Seymour Balkin, a retired CPA now living in West Palm Beach, Fla. "He was different from everyone else. He was reading musical scores, he was into symphonic music," said Mr. Balkin's younger sister, Barbara H. Balkin of Fair Lawn. "I had Beatles albums," she said, "so I just ignored him, in my own way." Mr. Balkin, whose mother, Rhea, trained to be a concert pianist, had many musical accomplishments in his youth. In November 1965, The Record covered his conducting debut when Pascack Valley High musicians performed his march, "Lance and Saber." Two years later, while at Syracuse University, he was one of 66 young people chosen to participate in a monthlong tour of Europe with the School Orchestra of America. During college, Mr. Balkin earned extra money playing principal second violin and viola with the Syracuse Symphony. Mr. Balkin established a video production company, Mark I Video, in 1983. He specialized in videos about trains and railroad history -- a lifelong passion, his sister said. Mr. Balkin's work won several Telly Awards for film and video production. In addition to his parents and sister, Mr. Balkin is survived by his sons, Jeffrey of New Milford and Jonathan, a student at Rutgers University; and a brother, Fred, of Rockville, Md. The funeral service is today at 10:30 a.m. at Gutterman-Musicant Funeral Directors in Hackensack. Burial will be at King David Cemetery in Putnam Valley, N.Y. E-mail: levin_@_northjersey.com Jim Dent Oakland, NJ The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List Sponsored by the ELH&TS http://www.elhts.org ------------------------------
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