James T. Guracech Inducted - Reno 2001
	James T. Guracech was born in March, 1930 in Detroit.  Other than his Kum Pete Malcevich, there were reportedly no musicians in his immediate family.  However, Jim's mother Barbara believed in the importance of music and launched his musical career at age 7 with violin lessons.  Also during this period, Jim became a member of the junior tambura group in Detroit directed by the late Andrew Benda.  So intent was Barbara on Jim's success as a musician, that practice always came first -- a drudge to a young man that would have frequently preferred sports activities with his neighborhood friends.
	Mom's strategy succeeded and by age 11, Jim had been enrolled in the Detroit Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of Taras Hubicki, a prominent musician with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.  As an outlet for his developing skills on the violin, Jim joined the Detroit Fiddlers' Band performing a variety of classical arrangements for strings.  Many of these concerts in the Detroit area were broadcast live on radio station WWJ, including a performance by Victor Borge.
	At 21, Jim joined the U.S. Army whereupon he successfully auditioned for the 7th Army Symphony.  This group performed across Europe and regularly in the American, French and British sections of occupied Germany as a good will gesture to maintain peaceful relations between the local populace and the American military, which, though still engaged in post WWII activities in Germany, was now also fully engaged in the Korean conflict.  Highlights of this period for Jim included performing with the pit orchestra for the Amsterdam Ballet and participation in the Passau Music Festival as an orchestra member accompanying an all-star German cast in the performance of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro in the theater where the opera had originally premiered in Germany.
	Upon his discharge from the military in 1954, Jim returned to Detroit and joined the Balkan Cavaliers.  They performed throughout the Midwest for some 30 years and were no doubt the inspiration for an entire generation of baby boomer tamburasi from Detroit.
	The 1970's were busy years for Jim and his wife, Marian.  Their four children, Jim Jr., Greg, Barbara and Marian were all active in tambura and kolo with the Detroit Star Junior Tamburitzans.  Marian was active in Mothers Club which supported the junior group and Jim was one of the "founding fathers" of the Dad's Club which was organized to help raise funds for the group's 1975 concert tour to what was then Jugoslavia.  Whether helping in the kitchen for the innumerable spaghetti dinners and fish fries or playing for the dances afterward, Jim's support of tamburitza culture was self-evident.
	Another reason 1975 was a banner year, Steve Pavlekovich, who had for years directed the Detroit Senior Tamburitzans (later known as the Detroit Tamburitza Orchestra), became ill and the group needed a new director.  Given Jim's classical training and broad musical experience, he was chosen to lead this premier ensemble and did so until retirement in 1994.
	In 1980, the CFU Junior Cultural Federation selected Jim as its guest conductor for the 14th Junior Festival held in Denver.  His role as guest conductor was unique in that the mass performance of over 900 young tamburitzans included three of his own children.
	Perhaps the highlight of Jim's musical career was to direct the Detroit Tamburitza Orchestra on its concert tour of the old country in 1984.  In 1992, the DTO, with Jim at the helm, joined the Warren Symphony Orchestra Brass Quintet and Woodwind Quintet and the Detroit Balalaika Orchestra for a benefit concert in support of the CFU Humanitarian Fund providing relief to war victims in Croatia and Bosnia.
	James T. Guracech has been the consummate promoter of Tamburitza music.  Through his efforts as performer, arranger, and director, he has capitalized on every meaningful opportunity to introduce the beauty and versatility of Tambura music to anyone within hearing distance.  His library of works will seed these efforts indefinitely.
	As for elevation of Tambura music, there could be no one more convinced than Jim that Tambura instrumentation is capable of attaining that level of universality already accorded the more commonplace instrumentation of the garden variety band or symphony.  If Tambura music remains exotic or unusual to many ears, it is merely for lack of exposure.  James T. Guracech devoted a significant part of his life to providing a means and a conduit for Tambura to attain the worldwide recognition that it merits.
	Jim is a true gentlemen and admirable statesman for our music and thereby most deserving of this honor.
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