Associate dean leaves a lasting legacy
A “virtuoso” French horn player and former marine, Robert Pruzin was a strong presence in USC’s School of Music.
As the school’s associate dean and director of undergraduate studies, he advised every incoming first-year music student for 15 years. For 35 years, he taught every horn student who came through the School of Music. He planned to retire in May after 36 years at USC.
On Oct. 29, Pruzin died at the age of 66 after a long illness. At his Friday morning funeral, a horn choir of 15 current students and 15 alumni played Pruzin off in Trinity Cathedral.
“The School of Music is in a profound state of grief over this,” Dean Tayloe Harding said. “He touched everybody here.”
The 6-foot-3-inch veteran was “a commanding presence,” Harding said. He was disciplined from his military service and was known to be stern yet compassionate with students.
“He had a hard exterior, but with marshmallow on the inside,” said Paula Riddle, a former student and current music instructor at Furman University. “That’s what surprised people a lot, because they saw his intense side in the work environment, but there were moments when he was kind and caring and compassionate.”
Pruzin used that balance to demand the best from his students, Harding said. He approached each musician with the same expectation: that they succeed under his tutelage.
“A lot of music faculty around the country who have high standards want students to fail to show how elite they are. Pruzin wasn’t like that,” Harding said. “We value the success of every student we take because of Bob Pruzin.”
But while Pruzin wanted all of his students to succeed, he still held them all to the same high standard, according to Riddle, who graduated from the School of Music in 1994. She returned for graduate studies in 1999 and worked with Pruzin as a teaching assistant. Now a music instructor at Furman, she said Pruzin’s teaching style was pivotal in developing hers.
“There are some students who need that kick in the pants, and he was very willing to give that kick in the pants when they needed it,” Riddle said. “He was very flexible in how he approached each student, but at the same time, he had the same expectations for everybody.”
The result of this flexible teaching approach is the best group of students and alumni the School of Music has ever produced, Harding said. Many of Pruzin’s former students played alongside him in the South Carolina Philharmonic, where he was principal horn for 33 years.
“He certainly was an amazing, expressive player,” said Riddle, who still plays in the orchestra. “Sitting next to him and hearing this beautiful way of expressing pieces, you could hear he had a really intuitive way of expressing musical style.”
But his students’ success was not limited to one orchestra. Many band directors, music teachers and professional performers across the state and the country learned from Pruzin for their four years at USC.
For many students, his influence stretched far beyond that.
“He never really stopped being my teacher and my mentor. He never lost touch with his students,” Riddle said. “I went to him often once I was a professional and asked him for advice, and he was always happy and willing to give it when it was needed. I can’t say that for too many other professors.”
Pruzin’s legacy will live on in the musicians he taught, Harding said, but the place he leaves in the School of Music will be very difficult to fill.
“The greatest tragedy of his passing is not that those who’ve known him and worked with him are grieving, but that all these students who have yet to come through the music school will not learn from him,” Harding said.
Pruzin is survived by his wife Mary Ann and children Jason Pruzin of Milwaukee, Wisc.; Rachel Pruzin of Charleston; John Banks of Columbia; Emily Banks Riegel of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.; grandchildren, Scott Alan Cleary and Ellie Riegel of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.; and his goddaughters Lucy and Gracie Kisner-Drennan of Columbia and their family.