The New York Rock & Roll Ensemble

The New York Rock & Roll Ensemble was an American psychedelic baroque-rock band that released three albums between 1968 and 1970 on Atco, followed by two 1971–72 titles on Columbia. Keyboardist Michael Kamen became a Hollywood film composer.

Members: Clifton Nivison (vocals, guitar, percussion), Dorian Rudnytsky (vocals, cello, bass, piano, trumpet, french horn), Michael Kamen (vocals, oboe, keyboards, synthesizer, english horn), Marty Fulterman [aka Mark Snow] (oboe, drums), Brian Corrigan (guitar, vocals, 1967-71), Hank DeVito (pedal steel guitar, 1971-72)

Background

The New York Rock & Roll Ensemble was formed in 1967 at Juilliard by three multi-instrumentalists: Michael Kamen, Marty Fulterman, and Dorian Rudnytsky, all natives of New York City who played in different plays while enrolled at the performing arts institute.

Kamen (b. April 15, 1948) and Fulterman (b. August 26, 1946) played in Emil & The Detectives, a rock band named after the 1929 child sleuth novel by German author Erich Kästner — since re-popularized by a 1964 Disney film adaptation (the name was also used by a mid-sixties school band with soon-to-be Fairport Convention guitarist Richard Thompson and much-later Stranglers frontman Hugh Cornwell).

Rudnytsky (b. July 9, 1944) played in the rock band Invicta (named after the watch brand) with Brian Corrigan and Clif Nivison, both singing guitarists. He was borne to Ukraine migrant musical parents: composer–conductor Antin Rudnytsky (1902–1975) and opera soprano Maria Sokil (1902–1999). At Juilliard, he studied under Maurice Eisenberg, author of the 1957 handbook Cello Playing of Today and protege of famed Catalan cellist Pablo Casals, the 1963 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient.

At the suggestion of a talent-scouting record producer, Kamen and Fulterman dissolved the Detectives and teamed with Rudnytsky, Corrigan, and Nivison in a new band: dubbed the New York Rock & Roll Ensemble, a reference to their locale and musical fusion of rock and classical (hence “ensemble”). Clad in signature white ties and tailcoats, they performed their first concert for the 1967 Juilliard Halloween dance. Atlantic signed the band and linked them with producer–conductor George “Shadow” Morton.

Discography: