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In addition to heading Q-R-S, he originated the Q-R-S Great Performers Series in Buffalo, New York. The series brought such performers as Vladimir Horowitz, Andres Segovia, Beverly Sills, Marilyn Horne, Andre Watts, Eugene Istomin, Isaac Stern, and Leonard Rose to the city. He was also the manager of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra from 1956 to 1964. Tick had loved player pianos from his boyhood days in Buffalo, and he later bought one for himself. He learned that the player rolls were made by a company in The Bronx. "I kept my eye on it," he said, and in 1966 he asked 50 Buffalonians to lend him $1,000 each for the $50,000 purchase price. Tick then moved Q-R-S to Buffalo. The nostalgia craze hit soon afterward, and player piano rolls were in demand. "I got solvent in a hurry," he recalled. In 1985 QRS began making player pianos, but piano rolls remained the company's mainstay. In 1989, following financial problems at Lake Erie Boat Cruise Corp., of which Tick was the principal shareholder, Tick sold Q-R-S to Richard A. Dolan, who still heads the firm at the time of this writing. Tick's first name at birth was "Ismar." He later began
spelling it backwards and became "Ramsi." He was born in Buffalo, the son of
Jacob and Kate (Person) Tick, both now deceased. (His father
was appointed Justice of the
New York State Court of Appeals, a lifetime appointment.) Mr. Tick died on October 31, 1989 in Erie County Medical Center
in upstate New York; he was 75. |
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Ramsi
P. Tick, the owner of Q-R-S Music Rolls from 1966 until
1989.
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