Salvatore Martirano

Martirano was the leader of the team that built the SAL-MAR Construction (as well as its namesake), as summarized in this Illinois Distributed Museum article. Besides touring with it, he recorded at least one performance as The SalMar Construction.

He became interested in how to use technology for composition, and he and his team were able to construct one of the first musical electronic instruments, named the Sal-Mar Construction, using parts from the ILLIAC II. Martirano had greatly enjoyed the improvisational components during his time travelling with the Marine Corps band and this influenced his enjoyment of playing the SAL-MAR Construction, which was largely improvisational. He would travel around the world playing concerts with the SAL-MAR construction and would often title his performances, “Let’s Look at the Back of My Head for Awhile.” Throughout his career, he would continue to compose multimedia works and enjoyed learning the newest technologies and thinking about how they could be used in music composition. Martirano would later create the YahaSALmaMAC, another electronic instrument.