Past Orchestral Players

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Re: Past Orchestral Players

Post by tusabtuba »

Chester Schmitz went directly from The United States Army Band to Boston. The National Symphony guy's name was Lewin prior to Bragunier. Prior to Toby Hanks in Minneapolis was Paul Walton; Ross Tolbert came after Toby Hanks. Tolbert was in New Orleans prior for Minneapolis. Joe Novotny was in Kansas City prior to five or six years in the MET Orchestra then the NY Phil. Joe owned Pierko's King tuba. Tusabtuba
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Re: Past Orchestral Players

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Chester Schmitz went directly from The United States Army Band to Boston. The National Symphony guy's name was Lewin prior to Bragunier. Prior to Toby Hanks in Minneapolis was Paul Walton; Ross Tolbert came after Toby Hanks. Tolbert was in New Orleans prior for Minneapolis. Joe Novotny was in Kansas City prior to five or six years in the MET Orchestra then the NY Phil. Joe owned Pierko's King tuba. Tusabtuba
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Re: Past Orchestral Players

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Image


From the "International Musician", January 1950

(The horn appears to be a CC York 692, or BBb 712?)
Last edited by roweenie on Wed Nov 26, 2014 4:40 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Past Orchestral Players

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Re: Past Orchestral Players

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Re: Past Orchestral Players

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Re: Past Orchestral Players

Post by Ted Cox »

Harold Strand was Principal tuba with the Phoenix Symphony for 23 years, retiring from the orchestra in 1973. He died in May of 2005 at the age of 75. Harold received his education from Arizona State University and was a music educator for 30 years. I had the great privilege of studying with Harold from 8th grade through High School. He was a wonderful man and teacher. We stayed in touch until his passing.

When Harold retired, Dave Pack followed as Principal Tuba, a position Dave still enjoys after 40 plus years! I was also a proud student of Dave Pack for four years. Dave is one of the last students of Bill Bell, studying with him at Indiana University. Harvey Phillips accepted me into I.U. as an undergraduate from a hand written note from Dave. 60 plus years is a long tenure for two wonderful men in the Phoenix Symphony.

The horn Harold is holding is his pride and joy, a six valve Alex CC from c.1958. I was told by his only daughter that he was going to give me this tuba, but unfortunately, Harold, his wife of 54 years, and the tuba all perished in a house fire.
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Re: Past Orchestral Players

Post by EdFirth »

I showed up in New Orleans in 78' after leaving the Circus Vargas band. The tuba player in the orchestra at that time was Neal Tidwell. Wonderful player and avid Jake student. He, Don Harry, and Floyd Cooley had been call backs for San Francisco but Neal's point of view was that he'd already paid to go out there so they should pay his fare for the callback. So he wound up in New Orleans. There was also the "hometown boy" who some thought should have been given the job and was teaching at Tulane. His name was Joe Hebert. I don't know exactly where Ross Tolbert fits in but he was before Neal sometime. There was also Bruce Butler who left the orchestra to become a dentist. I heard him play Barnum and played wit him once or twice in the New Orleans Police Band which was originally made up of cops. He was a very fine player and used a "compact Kaiser" Bb Cerveny but I don't know what his C was. Then there was Joe Mexic. He was before everybody. When I met him he was well into his eighties and played valve trombone in the NOCB. He also owned and ran a jewelry store. So when I got there and wanted to audition for the sub list they told me they already had plenty of tuba players. Later I played a Pete Fountain New Years big band job and the bass bone player was Dick Erb. He wanted to get me on the list but by then I was ready to come to Florida and play crappy music for lots of money. I think the orchestra is called something else now and don't know who plays it but here's a kind of interesting side note. The trombone player in Louis Armstrong's Allstars was Trummy Young. Who also played the New Orleans Symphony.Ed
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Re: Past Orchestral Players

Post by cbettler »

A huge thank you to everyone who has weighed in on this topic! It has been really interesting to try and further research some of the players mentioned, and to get a further glimpse into the histories of some of the great arts organizations in this country!

Just out of further curiosity, and to keep this post alive a bit longer, here are a couple more questions:

Who preceded Oscar La Gasse in the Detroit Symphony?
Who preceded Michael Russell in the Seattle Symphony?
Who preceded Vincent Vanni in the Dallas Symphony?
Who preceded E.W. Moore in the Atlanta Symphony?
Who preceded Charles Eckenrode in the Utah Symphony?
Who preceded Matthew Garbutt in the San Diego Symphony?
Who preceded Paul Humpel in the Berlin Philharmonic (and for what tenure, if known)?
Who preceded John Fletcher in the London Symphony? I thought it was Philip Catilinet, but I recently read an old ITEA interview with Roger Bobo concerning the Vaughan Williams, and it seemed to suggest that Catilinet was primarily a euphoniumist.

Many thanks for any information you may have!

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Re: Past Orchestral Players

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Sam Rice preceded Matt Garbutt in the San Diego Symphony. Before coming to San Diego he was apparently on staff at Universal Studios in the 50's and 60's. Unfortunately I don't know much more about him. Maybe someone else can fill in?
On a side note, I remember hearing about Matt winning the San Diego Symphony position, and being somewhat chagrined that I hadn't even heard about the audition (not that I would have had any chance.) I resolved to make sure I didn't miss the next one. That was over forty years ago, and Matt is still going strong!
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Re: Past Orchestral Players

Post by Bob-Tuba »

hbcrandy wrote:My information on the National Symphony is hearsay, so, take it as that. I heard that Louis Pirko had also played for the National as well as William Lewin. But, I cannot say for sure.
  • I believe William Lewin was playing in the National Symphony prior to 1955.
  • He was playing in the National Symphony in 1960, when he became a father.
  • He was in it in 1962, when they recorded, "National Symphony Orchestra, Howard Mitchell ‎– Instruments Of The Orchestra".
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Re: Past Orchestral Players

Post by roweenie »

Seattle Symphony, possibly Vaughn Abbey.

That picture I posted above of Louis Pirko in the National Symphony is from a newspaper article from 1950.
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Re: Past Orchestral Players

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According to his biography, Michael Moore was born in Oklahoma in 1950. E.W. might have been in GA when the ASO was begun in 1946 but I would suspect he was in OK with Michael's mother. That would leave a few years of someone else before E.W. got here. We could always ask Michael I guess.
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Re: Past Orchestral Players

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Found it! I knew I had read somewhere a conversation with Michael talking about his dad. Here it is from a post of his on this site in 2005.

About my Dad- Yes, his name was Emerald William (Bill) Moore and he was my first teacher. He played in the Atlanta Symphony in the late 50s and early 60s. When he left, Bill Hughes (who had previously played bass bone) took over, as Hughes had as his life's ambition to be a symphonic tuba player. He left after Robert Shaw's first year as music director, and I was fortunate to win the audition. Thirty seven years and counting.
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Re: Past Orchestral Players

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TubaKen wrote: Tue Jan 06, 2015 7:27 pm Sam Rice preceded Matt Garbutt in the San Diego Symphony. Before coming to San Diego he was apparently on staff at Universal Studios in the 50's and 60's. Unfortunately I don't know much more about him. Maybe someone else can fill in?
On a side note, I remember hearing about Matt winning the San Diego Symphony position, and being somewhat chagrined that I hadn't even heard about the audition (not that I would have had any chance.) I resolved to make sure I didn't miss the next one. That was over forty years ago, and Matt is still going strong!
Hi,Sam Rice was my dad...best man in the world. Let me know if I can answer any questions. He passed away in 1987.
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Re: Past Orchestral Players

Post by Sydcircle »

He played string bass as well. He played in many of the Elmer Bernstein scores and some Henry Mancini recordings. We still have both of his tubas.
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Re: Past Orchestral Players

Post by Boomer »

tbn.al wrote: Thu Apr 02, 2015 12:11 pm Found it! I knew I had read somewhere a conversation with Michael talking about his dad. Here it is from a post of his on this site in 2005.

About my Dad- Yes, his name was Emerald William (Bill) Moore and he was my first teacher. He played in the Atlanta Symphony in the late 50s and early 60s. When he left, Bill Hughes (who had previously played bass bone) took over, as Hughes had as his life's ambition to be a symphonic tuba player. He left after Robert Shaw's first year as music director, and I was fortunate to win the audition. Thirty seven years and counting.
i just saw this pop up. Michael Moore and I were classmates,

We started playing in bands together about the 7th grade, and played all the way through high school. For some reason I was always 2nd chair. :roll:

He became the principal tuba player for the Atlanta Symphony when he graduated HS in 1968,

He was a real favorite of the pep band folks (me) in HS because he could listen to a pop song and write out a 5 line score that was suitable for the occasion.
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