George Maurer ('88)
George Maurer graduated from SJU in 1988 with a degree in Music Composition, after originally entering as a business major. Maurer has had a longstanding music career starting with his first album being released during his junior year.
Maurer at SJU
In 1985, Maurer played music for CSB+SJU’s musical performance of West Side Story. and in 1986 he performed at a sophomore recital. Also in 1986 he wrote music for the theater department’s production of Crimes of the Heart and Macbeth. Maurer produced and released his first album during his junior year in 1986. To do this, he created a recording company New Age Productions, Inc., named after his style of music. The album was centered around SJU and was called Behind the Pine Curtain.
Maurer was a member of the SJU Jazz Ensemble and created a jazz group of his own, called New Sensation. The group played jazz fusion, funk, rock, and new-age music. New Sensation members were Mark Watz ’86 (Bass), Joe Bjorklund ’87 (drums), Richard Witteman ’88 (trumpet), Joe Cleveland ’88 (trumpet), and Paul Wagner ’88. On February 17, 1987, New Sensation played a benefit concert that raised money to send the CSB Blazer tennis team to California to play five nationally ranked teams in the spring. Mike Hahn (guitar) had also joined New Sensation.
During the summer of 1987, Maurer and his drummer Joe Bjorklund, traveled the US with the Memories which was a Wisconsin-based band that had played together for fifteen years. New Sensation played at the Homecoming Variety Show on September 25, 1987, tying for second place.
Maurer’s second album was released in September 1987, called The Curtain Opens, under his renamed record label, Pine Curtain Productions, Inc. The title of the album came from leaving the pine curtain as he was a senior and to celebrate the good things that had happened since the first album was released. One side of The Curtain Opens was for his piano pieces and the other side was for his synthesizer pieces.
The other album released in 1987 was a children’s album, Mr. Gonopolis and His 12 Holsteins: The Whimsical Moosical. In this album, Maurer accompanied a reading of Uncle Hyggly’s (real name Chuck Dewey) book by the same title. Maurer and Dewey signed copies of their album on December 4, 1987, on campus.
New Sensation had much success in 1988. They played a concert on campus with Memories on January 7th and released their second album in February. On February 22, New Sensation played a fundraising concert to raise money to send the CSB Blazer tennis team to Florida for spring training. Their music was also featured in admission videos for CSB+SJU and St. John’s Prep School.
On April 7 and May 13, 1988, Maurer played his senior recitals. Following graduation, Maurer became an admissions counselor at SJU, a position he held for four years.
Maurer’s Career After Graduation
In September 1988, Maurer released his third album Out of the Powerful Silence. Richard Witteman played the fluegelhorn and piccolo trumpet on two of the originals “The Powerful Silence” and “Time Was.”
On December 4, 1988, Maurer played in a benefit concert that raised money for the CSB Campus Ministry Ojos Albertos Project, which sent CSB students as missionaries to Peru in 1989. Maurer played annually at the next 4 fundraising concerts for the Ojos Albertos Project, which started sending students to Cuernavaca, Mexico. Maurer also played a concert during J-term, 1989.
At the start of 1989, Maurer’s second album The Curtain Opens (1987), was nominated for the Minnesota Music Award in the contemporary jazz category. In 1989, Maurer was a part of the album People Helping People. This album was a collaboration of St. Cloud artists. The goal was to raise funds for the hungry in St. Cloud. All proceeds went to The Salvation Army and Caritas Food Shelf in St. Cloud. Maurer performed the song Water’s Voice, which was written by Joe Cleveland (’90).
In November 1989, the theater department put on a production of The Lower Depths, with music that Maurer composed for the performance. Following the success of last year’s concert, Maurer played another dinner concert during J-term (1990).
In May 1990, Maurer and his jazz quintet played a concert to raise money for the CSB+SJU Scholarship Fund for Students of Color. Members of Maurer’s group were Jay Dold ’91 (percussion), Dan Page ’93 (guitar), and Richard Witteman ’89 (trumpet).
On September 18, 1990, Maurer was in concert at the Ordway. He also released another album, called Spirits of Winter’s Past which featured Johnnies, Efrem Smith (vocals), Richard Witteman (trumpet), Joe Bjorklund (percussion), and Mark Watz (bass).
On March 2, 1991, Maurer played at the “Homeless Experience” benefit show. The proceeds went to CSB+SJU community members who spent their spring break in Washington, D.C. working and living with the homeless.
On December 9, 1991, the annual Christmas concert occurred in which Maurer was the featured artist. With the success of the previous J-term concerts, Maurer had another dinner concert on January 18, 1992. On January 22, 1992, MPR celebrated its 25th anniversary from its birthplace in Collegeville. The broadcast day ended with a live concert from Stephen B. Humphrey Theater of classical music, which featured Maurer and others.
Maurer played the second annual Homeless Benefit concert on February 28, 1992. In March 1992, Maurer released his fifth album Silent Past/Powerful Presence. The album featured SJU alumni Richard Wittman (trumpet), Mark Watz (bass), and Joe Bjorklund (drums). The album was heavily influenced by the people and places of CSB+SJU.
Maurer played a concert on March 13, 1993, at the World Theater in St. Paul. This led to his sixth musical release, George Maurer—Live at the World Theater which is a sixty-minute VHS concert video of his CSB+SJU “On Location Series.” On the VHS are reflective piano pieces and humorous storytelling. It also included new pieces such as, “The Brother Willy Shuffle” and “Linus and Lucy.”
Maurer and his quintet, George Maurer Quintet (GMQ) played at the first “Cotton Club” jazz formal on March 5, 1994. Aaron-Keith Stewart was a guest of GMQ and sang songs from the Cotton Club era. Cotton Clubs were established in the 1920s for Black people to meet and perform since they were barred from nightclubs. The event provided entertainment and history about Cotton Clubs.
From July 10-15, 1994, there was an academic summer camp, in which Maurer taught music. For Family Weekend on October 15, 1994, Maurer and peace studies major, Aaron-Keith Stewart performed.
In 1994, Maurer released his seventh album, A New Tradition Christmas. The album includes nine improvisations on classic Christmas pieces that date back to pre-1850. One of these songs featured trumpet player Richard Witteman (’89). Many local events happened to celebrate the release including a performance and signing at the SJU bookstore on December 19, 1994, with the same thing at the CSB bookstore on December 20th, and an interview on KSJR-FM (MPR) on December 8th.
Maurer was also the featured composer and music director for a production of A Christmas Carol at The New Tradition Theater Company in St. Cloud from December 1-24.
On April 3, 1995, Maurer played with Stewart for a fundraiser concert. This concert raised money for the St. Cloud Area American Indian Center. Around this time, Maurer also re-released his first album Behind the Pine Curtain and contributed music to 25 for the Earth. This album project had 25 musicians record songs to raise awareness for Earth. He then performed an “Earth Day Concert” with the other artists at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis on April 25th, 1995. The same label that produced 25 for the Earth, NorthSound Records, also produced Maurer’s album Falling Colors in 1995.
By 1995, Maurer had been nominated for the NACA “Campus Entertainer of the Year,” three times and performed over 100 concerts a year in over 25 states. On October 22, 1995, “An Evening with Douglas Wood” happened with Wood reading from his children’s books while Maurer accompanied him on the piano. On one of Wood’s audiobooks, Maurer provided the musical accompaniment.
Rookery Blues by Jon Hassler (SJU ’55) was released as an audiobook in August 1995 by Pine Curtain Audio Books. The audiobook totaled over six hours on four tapes and featured Maurer playing the jazz piano and the jazz quintet.
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of his first solo piano release, Maurer released his 10th solo piano CD in September 1997. Land of Rest is an hour-long recording, that features St. John’s Boys Choir and members of the George Maurer Quintet, Mark Watz (’86), Joe Bjorklund (’87), Richard Witteman (’89), and Nathan Hanson. The songs are inspired by many areas of the world such as Scotland and Estonia. Maurer took the traditional pieces and added another layer of texture to them.
In 1997, Maurer came to campus for homecoming, the Millstream Arts Festival, and Parent’s Weekend. He made a special appearance to promote his album Land of Rest on September 27th before the Homecoming game kickoff. The next day, Maurer performed his introspective piano melodies at the Mill Stream Arts Festival. On October 25, 1997, he played a concert for Parents’ Weekend with Stephanie Campbell (CSB ’94). Campbell was a theater and history major. In 1997, Campbell made an appearance on Dan Chouinard’s “The Singer’s Voice.” On October 26, 1997, Media Play in St, Cloud hosted a CD release party for Maurer’s album Land of Rest.
Carmina Burana was a concert that celebrated spring, life, and love. Maurer was one of the pianists for this. They had performances on April 3, 5, and 7, 1998. Carmina Burana finished its tour at CSB on April 7th. It was created by the Great River Arts Association and utilized dance, vocal, and orchestral music.
In May 1999, a new club was created, Campus Groove Recordings (CGR). The goal of the club was to release CDs that featured CSB+SJU artists, either current or former. Maurer served on the board of this club.
In 2000, Maurer released his album Jazz in Black and White. The album features his seven-member group, the George Maurer Group (GMG), which was formed in 1998. Johnnie members were trumpeter Richard Witteman (’89) and singer Aaron-Keith Stewart (’96). The Collegeville Quartet was featured on Maurer’s album Songs From the Longer Road. Maurer released a new collection in 2001, On Track: Live at the Dakota. The highlight of the piece was “The Brother Willie Shuffle.” Which was based on Br. Willie and his shuffling when closing up the Quad. Maurer’s 2001 album Retrospect was created to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the founding of Pine Curtain Records, Inc.
GMG played their song, “The Brother Willie Shuffle” among others at Brother Willie’s Pub in February 2002 for a pre-release Mardi Gras Party for the CGR album which was released in March 2002.
Maurer released his solo piano album Dreams Once Lost in 2004. It was his first solo piano release since 1998. Maurer had the chance to play with Eric Clapton in July 2004 at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.
In 2005, Maurer worked with a monk of Saint John’s Abbey Simon-Hoá Phan. Phan created a documentary, Mother Tongue, Fatherland, which was about Amerasians, focusing on the children of American soldiers and Vietnamese mothers that were born during the Vietnam War. Maurer is credited as the composer of the film.
By 2007 Maurer had released 20 CDs, including 14 solo piano CDs, 4 with his George Maurer Jazz Group. He also made an original piece “Enticed” for St. Paul City Ballet. At this point in his career, he had played for members of Congress, the Clinton White House, and the United Nations.
In 2009, Maurer received a $10,000 grant from the American Composers Forum (ACF) to be the composer-in-residence at St. Edward Catholic Church and Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Princeton, Minnesota for 18 months.
In 2014, Maurer received a McKnight Composer Fellowship. He also expanded his touring to Europe and played in Berlin.
Bicycle Tours
Beginning in 2014, Maurer started doing bicycle tours to raise money for cancer research in memory of his friend Carolyn Held. For his first and second bicycle tours, Maurer rode across all 48 contiguous states of the US in 48 days, calling it, “48 Across the 48.” In 2016, for his third tour, he did “50 Across Iceland.” In 2017 it was, “51 Across Sri Lanka,” followed by the 2018 tour, “52 Across Canada.” In 2019 he completed, “53 Across Vietnam.” His most recent tour occurred in 2020 and was, “54 Across Patagonia.” Maurer blogs for the entirety of his trips and began to document his trip through interviews during his Vietnam ride. This became known as the Tales from a Bicycle Seat radio series on St. Cloud public radio station KVSC-FM 88.1.
Most Recent Accomplishments
Maurer played The Great Pumpkin Concert at SJU on October 29, 2021. He returned to campus in 2022, to be the resident artist/scholar from January 10th to April 29th. During this residency, Maurer performed a concert on April 3rd, called “Visions of Hope,” to uplift peoples’ spirits in the midst of COVID.
Nick McGrane (SJU ) produced a video about Maurer's SJU influences, For the Sake of A Single Poem, in 2022.
