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Paul Perman

Paul Perman, perhaps more than any other single individual, helped to bring about the widespread use of the Sremski system of tambura, replacing the older Farkas instruments. First, as a player himself, and later as a teacher, he constantly advocated the superiority of the Sremski system. Paul Perman devoted himself with passion to the entire field of tambura, first as a player in the 1900s, then as a teacher in the 1920s, and finally turning to the manufacture of the instrument itself. A strict disciplinarian and drill master, he earned the respect of his students by getting them to play in rather rapid fashion. Perman was a firm believer in the student knowing all the theory and fundamentals of music before putting an instrument in his hands. A stern taskmaster, he demanded much from the learner and wasn't concerned whether the pupils like him or not as long as they showed progress. Born in the town of Jusici near Opatija on the Adriatic Sea in 1896, he joined a tamburitza band at the age of 11. At sixteen he arrived in America, settling in Acosta, Pennsylvania, a small coal mining town. A year later he organized a group of six players. Perma did most of the music writing and teaching. Within a period of ten years he was to teach seven different groups. Moving to Sharon, Pennsylvania, Perman joined the Sloga Tamburitza Orchestra in 1925, and shortly afterwards, the Croatian String Quintet of Sharon. This group broadcasted over radio station WKBN continuously from 1926 to 1932. During this period, deficiencies of their instruments began to make themselves known and his first genuine interest in developing a better tambura came to him. Experimentation in the making of the tambura began in earnest in 1929 and continued until his retirement from all work in 1960. Paul Perman was instrumental, in 1937, in helping to arrange for the establishment of the Tamburitza Orchestra at Duquesne University. He was very generous with his musical scores and even the tambura instruments. This, he felt, was the dawn of a new era. When his health began to fail, Mr. Perman turned over his complete music library to Walter W. Kolar, Director of the Duquesne University Tamburitzans, placed his string-making business into the capable hands of another one of his former students, William Prezgay, and personally spent much time teaching his successor, Mr. Evan Yanzetich of McKeesport, Pennsylvania, the complete art of making a fine tamburitza instrument. He then moved back to his village of Jusici near Optija, where he died in 1967.

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