Ronald Surak (1940–2011) was a composer and teacher. Born and raised in Shamokin in 1940, he lived most of his adult life in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
His path to becoming a composer started with a natural talent for the keyboard that manifested itself in playing popular and jazz music in his teens and beyond. Once in Philadelphia, he embarked on private formal compositional studies followed by graduate work culminating in a Doctorate degree in Composition from Rutgers University.
He taught at Wilmington Music School at various times where he also served as interim director for several years. His university teaching career included 20 years in the Graduate Music Department of Rutgers University in New Jersey. He assembled electronic music labs for Rutgers at both the Camden and New Brunswick campuses.
Surak’s musical compositions typically explored mathematical concepts, including the golden section and prime numbers as underlying structures of each piece. Fellowships that nurtured his work included the Aspen Music Festival, Athens Center for the Arts, Pennsylvania Composers’ Conference, and Yellow Springs Institute.
Compositions during the last decade included a series inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s Large Glass. In particular, Reflections on the Large Glass I and II were written for, and performed at, the Paley Design Center at Philadelphia University. Most recently, his composition Ariel was written for, and performed by, the Hoffmann/Goldstein Duo in Maryland in October 2010.