Martin “Marty” Sauser picked up is first violin when he was six years old and he didn’t stop playing until he was 86.
“It wasn’t so much that he loved music, but he loved the violin,” said his son and namesake, Martin “Marty” Sauser Jr. “And the only reason he stopped was because of health reasons. But he didn’t actually put it down. Even though he couldn’t play, he used to just hold it.”
Martin Sauser Sr., had been plagued by Parkinson’s disease over the past 10 years. When he had to stop playing the violin he was very frustrated, his son said.
“I suggested he put on some of the records of the great symphonies and close his eyes and play in his mind,” the younger Sauser said. “And he said to me, ‘I don’t want to hear the music, I want to play the music.’ ”
Martin Hugo Sauser Sr., of Atlanta, known as Marty to most, died Monday at his home from complications of Parkinson’s. He was 88. Mr. Sauser elected to donate his body to Emory University Hospital, his family said. A memorial service has been planned for 11 a.m. Friday at Druid Hills Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Sauser’s love of the violin began when a door-to-door salesman came to his childhood home in Chicago.
“His mother had taken violin lessons earlier in life and quit,” the younger Mr. Sauser said of his grandmother. “So she was determined that her children would take lessons. And my father fell in love with it.”
Mr. Sauser said when his father was 10, he was the concertmaster of a children’s orchestra for two performances at the Chicago World’s Fair. He played in the orchestra at Lane Technical High School and graduated in 1940. Three years later he was drafted into the Army, where he also found the opportunity to play, his son said.
After the war Mr. Sauser continued to play, finding work with the Arkansas, Grant Park and Minneapolis symphony orchestras. In 1948, Mr. Sauser married the former Grace Cochran, whom he met in a music history class at the former Henderson State Teacher’s College in Arkadelphia, Ark. In 1951 he had an opportunity to join the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, so the couple, with a young daughter, relocated from Minneapolis to the Peach State.
Mr. Sauser became an invaluable asset to the orchestra, especially as it transitioned to a professional symphony, said John Head, former ASO principal trumpet.
“Robert Shaw leaned heavily on Marty to recruit for the orchestra, particularly the violin section,” said Mr. Head. “And Marty was the right person, at the right time to do that.”
The ASO wasn’t the only place Mr. Sauser played. Members of Druid Hills Presbyterian could hear the talented violinist on any given Sunday, said Porter Remington, the church’s former organist and choir director.
“It was amazing what Martin could do,” Ms. Remington said. “That violin just sang. When he played, Martin went into the violin and his heart came out.”
Mr. Sauser retired from the ASO in 1988, but he didn’t stop playing the violin. He picked up a considerable amount of freelance work. He also started playing with a traveling group called the Hollywood Hills Orchestra, his son said.
“He said some of his best playing was after he retired, because he was on the stage performing solo work,” Mr. Sauser said of his father. “He said he felt like he got his chops back.”
Mr. Sauser is remembered by fondly by friends and former colleagues.
“I will always remember his gentle spirit, his cooperative attitude and his superior musicianship,” Ms. Remington said. “He was just fabulous.”
Mr. Sauser is also survived by his wife of 63 years, Grace Sauser of Atlanta; daughters, Ann Pridgen of Alpharetta, Linda Mentzer of Alpharetta and Jean Trammell of Kennesaw; 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
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