Sound designer Sunil Rajan passed away on Saturday, May 1 (his 36th birthday) from a brain tumor. He was a freelancer who worked on everything from the Broadway productions of Bat Boy The Musical and The Civil War to the Detroit Jazz & Blues festival. He was quite widely known and loved on the theater scene.
A memorial for Sunil Rajan will be held on Monday, May 3 at 10:30am, at Crestwood Memorial Chapel/Greenwich Village Funeral Home, 199 Bleeker (between MacDougal Street and Sixth Ave).
Robert Kaplowitz and Rajan’s widow and some friends are putting together an audio-visual tribute. If anyone has photos of Sunil or media he might have created while hanging out with you that you'd like to share, I've made a "DriveHQ" site (URL below)—please try and post mp3's, as there's only 400 meg of free space available.
“If you don't have media, but would like to share a good story about him, I think Mandi and Marlon, especially, would love that - ya'll are sound people — just record a short story about your times with Sunil, make an mp3 of it, and put it up on the site. If you can get it done before the end of the night tonight (Sunday), we can include it in the memorial service; if not, I'd say do it anyway, and I'll lay it down for Mandi and Marlon to have as time passes. Similarly, it'd be nice to assemble a list of gigs he's done - I don't think ANYONE has a full bio for Sunil. Please feel free to email those credits to me OFF-LIST,” says Kaplowitz ([email protected])
The site: www.drivehq.com Login as SunilRajan, with the password Sunil, and just put files into "My Music" - don't bother downloading their "proprietary" software— it's just as easy on the web (you can upload up to 6 items at a time.) “I know that everyone who ever knew Sunil now has to live in a world with a little bit less color, wit, and sound magic. He brought amazing passion and style with his killer audio chops everywhere he went.” Robert Kaplowitz
Thoughts from colleagues about Sunil Rajan:
“While we never had the opportunity to work together, I always wanted to because I was impressed with Sunil's enthusiasm and knowledge. Very sorry to hear the sad news.” Abe Jacob
“Sunil was the assistant sound designer on the Broadway production of "One Mo' Time" that I lit. He was delightful, and terrific at his work. Unfortunately, we didn't keep in touch after the show closed. His passing is a sobering reminder to hold your friends close and keep in touch as we work in this far-flung business.” John MacKernon
“I had the good fortune to be sort of responsible for Sunil choosing his path into the performing arts; he was fresh out of Okemos High School a million years ago when he wound up working for me as a volunteer-slash-intern on the production team for the MSU Festival of Michigan Folklife, sometime in the late '80s/early '90s, I forget exactly when. Pete Wehr and I got him hooked on "show business," even in the outdoor festival setting, and he never looked back. We followed his progress at U-M in Ann Arbor from afar, but he always came back to East Lansing when he could for Folklife... “I was very pleased to hear he'd bagged 'Civil War.' I was even more pleased when he eventually toured 'Noise/Funk' back through my theatre at Moo-U (blue hair and all) when I was still the Head Flyman there. He always claimed that I was some sort of role model or something, for getting him into this goofy business, way back when... “I remember calling him up to harass him when they opened up his skull the first time to excise a tumor, seems like a hundred years ago... Seems like a thousand years ago... I'm suddenly feeling very old tonight. Via con Dios, my Kid Brother from Another Mother.” Dave Vick
Related Story:
Robert Kaplowitz Remembers Sunil Rajan