Obituary: Norman Dimitrouleas, Former Keyboardist for The Werks

Norman Dimitrouleas, former keyboardist for Ohio’s The Werks, passed away suddenly over the weekend.

Norman Dimitrouleas Having brought his older brother Dino into the band in 2011, Norman left the group in 2014, returning to jam with them at The Werk Out this past summer.

Norman’s brother Dino Dimitrouleas, current bassist for The Werks, shared this statement on Facebook:

It is with a heavy heart that I am traveling back to Ohio early to be with family and prepare services for my brother Norman who passed away in his sleep last night. I want to say thank you to the hundreds of people who have reached out to me to give their condolences and support for me and my family during this very hard time.
Norman’ s heart was always bigger than his brain and he was one of the kindest humans I have ever known. He would consistently put himself out to try to help others and anyone who knew him couldn’t help but love him (no matter how mad you wanted to be with him). As I scroll down my news feed and see all the lives he has touched and influenced in his short life I can’t help but be proud to call this great man my brother. I love you Norman… rest in peace. You were too good for this world.
I will post information about services as soon as I know what they are.

Norman spoke with Gratefulweb in 2012 discussing his early musical background.

My parents got me lessons from a teacher skilled in teaching classical music. I was pretty good at it, but I wanted to play some rock and roll. She had me playing Bach and Beethoven, so one day I brought in the Beatles Let It Be and another song and asked her if I could learn it. She ended up telling me that he ‘wasn’t ready’ for that type of thing and she gave me Bach’s second to learn. I went home and worked on playing “Let It Be” and just barely touched practicing Bach. When I went back to practice the next week she asked me to pull out Bach. I got through about two bars of it and she said, ‘That’s it?’ I told her, ‘But look what I did learn,’ and I played a ripping “Let It Be.” She looked at me kind of blankly and said, ‘Well, I guess I didn’t understand the direction you wanted to go in and what you’ve come here for.’ And from then on I’ve been playing rock.”

The track “Norm and T-Bone Improv,” shared by Digipossum, was recorded in 2003. Digipossum shared the significance of this particular track:

This was recorded at my college’s recording studio shortly after I met Norm. He was the first musician I was doing studio work with, and even though he was sick and had a fever, he came in and did this track, because he knew how eager I was to record live musicians just getting started into recording at the time. This was all improv and no loops. He played all the layers live. We never put this out, and I thought I’d lost this recording, so was very happy to find it today. Enjoy. And RIP Norman. You were a great friend as well as a great musician.

Norman Dimitrouleas

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