Michael and Lois Friedman

Michael and Lois Friedman

"He always greeted me at the door with a new recording under his arm of a new artist he wanted me to hear," says Friedman, whose son Daniel '98 and daughter Sarah '02 graduated from Berklee. "These new artists could be classical, blues, reggae, rock, pop, anything that he thought was new, novel, quality, and interesting."

In recognition of Munjack's love of music and of how he helped instill this love in his grandchildren, Friedman and his wife have established the Solomon Munjack Endowed Scholarship for outstanding continuing students with demonstrated financial need. Friedman says that his father-in-law's appetite for music was well represented by his enormous record collection, a library that numbered in the thousands and covered four walls in a large room. It had big band 78s and lots of performances by jazz greats such as Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Lionel Hampton. It contained albums by jazz, Broadway, and r&b vocalists-Munjack particularly liked Sam Cooke-not to mention an extensive catalog of classical records.

"It was rare for me to find an artist that Sol had not already heard of and whose recordings he did not have in his collection," Friedman says. "It became a joke between us. I would ask him if he had heard the new recording by so and so, and he would say, 'Sure, do you want to listen to it?'"

Naturally, Munjack's enthusiasm influenced his daughter. She and Friedman went on to build a household as keen on music as Munjack's.

"Our home always had music playing, either recorded or being performed by a family member," Friedman says. "At one point we had two pianos, a keyboard, a full drum set, two guitars, a harmonica, and an assortment of electronic amplification equipment. Sarah started putting on shows when she was old enough to walk and tear her clothes up to convert them into costumes. Daniel started banging on the piano when he was a toddler, ultimately forcing us to have the keyboard replaced."

As the Friedmans' children grew, so did their musical ambitions, and they enrolled at Berklee. Daniel majored in Music Synthesis; Sarah studied Songwriting, and their father says that it was time well spent for both of them.

"They thought that the experience was very intense and challenging," says Friedman. "Both Daniel and Sarah made many good friends with whom they maintain close contact to this day. The Berklee experience is a real bond. My impression is that they both got what they wanted and needed. What is clear is that they both learned what they needed and took what they wanted from the Berklee experience. Sarah and Daniel walked away from Berklee with friends, contacts, tools, and above all, they retained their passion for music."

Daniel earns his living at the moment as a software developer, though he still plays the drums, and his guitar, says Friedman, "gets a great deal of wear and tear." Sarah, under the stage name Sarah Fimm, is building a fan base as a singer/songwriter and is set to release a third CD of her music in the near future. So, what would Munjack make of what his grandchildren have accomplished and the scholarship fund bearing his name? It's impossible to know, but Friedman thinks he has a pretty good guess.

"He would be thrilled and delighted that his grandchildren are musicians and that his name is associated with such a fine institution and such a worthwhile purpose."