F. Chester Roberts?

[hbcrandy]

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Does anyone have, or have a link to, any biographical information on tubist, F. Chester Roberts? From what I understand, he played for Cleveland and San Francisco. He wound up in Boston teaching.

Thank you for any help.

[jacojdm]

If my memory serves me, according to his notes in the beginning of the Robert King edition of the Bordogni, Roberts played with Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and the Chataqua Symphony. He taught tuba at Oberlin, Western Reserve U. (the forerunner to Case WRU), Baldwin Wallace, and I think Duquesne.

[Steven Noel]

Hi Randy , from what i have been told , he is still playing and alive and well in Rockport Massachusetts area . i hope this helps ?

[Art Hovey]

He also wrote an article about "Coping With the Extension Register" in one of the very early issues of the T.U.B.A. journal. (Vol. I, No. 2, Winter 1974)
I think the "long whole-step" fifth valve that is now so common was originated by Mr. Roberts. Most 5th valves before he came along were the "Two whole-step" or "Mirafone System".
In another issue (Vol. X, No. 1, Summer 1982) Roberts expressed strong opposition to using the 4th valve as a 1+3 substitute. Instead, he advised us to tune the 2+4, first as a substitute for 123, "as God, Reiner, and Szell obviously intended".
I also heard him say once that he was a singer before he was a tubist, and felt that his vocal training and experience helped him with transposition.

[OldBandsman]

Randy Harrison!

Chet plays in the American Legion Band out in Rockport, MA. I've passed your original message on to a friend who plays in that band. She'll pass it on to Chet in a week or so when she's back from vacation.

John Roberts

[hbcrandy]

John:

Thank you. I do not know Chester Roberts personally. However, I do have a great interest in learning about fine players from our past. I am glad to hear that he is still with us and gracing us with his musical talent. Send him my regards.

[OldBandsman]

Randy ... Check your tubenet email messages, please.
J L Roberts

[David Schwartz]

... I am glad to hear that he is still with us and gracing us with his musical talent...

Tuesday I telephoned Mr. Roberts, prompted by Randy's thread, and learned that he indeed plays tuba in the Rockport Legion Post band (Sunday evening concerts all summer) and he sings professionally, in church, as soloist in a church with no choir, just Mr. Roberts. Mr. Roberts turns 87 at the end of June, but on the telephone his voice sounds like the voice of a singer in his prime. His degree (Cleveland institute) was in voice, and his late wife was also a vocalist; she studied at Oberlin. They both grew up in Gloucester, he an eleventh generation Cape Ann resident.

Mr. Roberts played in the Pittsburgh Symphony from about 1947 until 1950, the Cleveland Orchestra until 1967, and the San Francisco Symphony until 1969. He played in Chautauqua for many summers, perhaps until 1982. I'll confirm dates and edit this paragraph later.

Mr. Roberts, who continued teaching until 1996, mentioned a 1988 article for ITEA, "A Singer Looks at Brass Playing." He believes brass players, among instrumentalists, come closest to the singer's art.

Wednesday I visited Mr. Roberts at his home, mainly to talk about his interest in revising his 1972 Robert King Music edition, with new tempi, additional practice guidance, and some key changes. I left him my own Bordogni transcriptions and play-along discs and we compared notes, literally, for a couple of hours. Chester Roberts' 43 Bel Canto Studies remains a best seller for Alphonse Leduc, both in the U.S. and in Europe.

In another project Mr. Roberts has transcribed and transposed some of the Bach cello suites and adapted them for tuba with guidance for articulation, breaths, tempo variation, and suggestions which notes to leave out, replacing them with a breath! A horn transcription by W. Hoss (Southern Music) in his possession may have provided some encouragement.

During our visit, which included lunch at the nearby Essex Seafood Restaurant, we exchanged stories. Here in the Boston area most everyone has a story about John Coffey, who grew up here, went to Curtis, played for Toscanini in the NBC Symphony and for Koussevitsky in the Boston Symphony (1941-1952). I'd taken a year of lessons with Mr. Coffey at age fifteen. When Chester Roberts came back from the South Pacific, after serving in the Air Force in aircraft maintenance, in 1945, he took some courses at Boston University and went to Mr. Coffey's studio on Huntington Avenue for a lesson. After waiting more than an hour beyond the scheduled time (He had better things to do with his time.) Mr. Roberts left, never to take a lesson with Mr. Coffey.

F. Chester Roberts (The F is for Francis) continues to practice the tuba an hour a day, choosing among his 19th century Cerveny, an early York, an Alexander F, or some euphoniums including one his father played. He declined to play duets with me saying his only public playing is in the back row of the Rockport Legion Band. I will be sure to ask again, suggesting we play the Bordogni contrapuntal duets written by Richard Bowles.

Though they haven't met, Mr. Roberts returns Randy Harrison's greetings.

[arpthark]

He is still on the list of ITEA Life Members. Not sure how often that gets updated. http://www.iteaonline.org/community/com ... %20members" target="_blank

edit: Abe Torchinsky (d. 2009) and Rodger Vaughan (d. 2012) are on the list, so this is useless info.

[Michael Bush]

He is still on the list of ITEA Life Members. Not sure how often that gets updated. http://www.iteaonline.org/community/com ... %20members" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

edit: Abe Torchinsky (d. 2009) and Rodger Vaughan (d. 2012) are on the list, so this is useless info.

FWIW and off topic, I think the list in the journal is more up to date. In addition to the problem you point out, there are some newish life members who are not in the list on the web site.

More on topic, poking around some good-but-not-infallible tools I have for a side gig that involves finding and keeping up with people leads me to believe Mr. Roberts is probably "still with us."