RIP F. Chester Roberts

[Tom Gregory]

I haven’t seen it here so I thought I’d post.
Chester Roberts, formerly Tubist of the Cleveland Orchestra and Pittsburgh Symphony, passed away on March 6, 2019 at the age of 97.
While he wasn’t my tuba teacher, I spent a fair amount of time with him while I was at Boston Conservatory. I had him for several classes and ensembles as well as frequently having lunch with him. He was very knowledgeable and as a teacher very demanding. If you google him you can read his obituary. He had quite a fascinating and long life. I know quite a few people who did study tuba with him and all are very good tuba players in their own right.

[toobagrowl]

He lived a long life I'm guessing he was in Cleveland right before Ron Bishop, and in Pittsburgh before Sumner Erickson. Does anyone know the exact years Mr. Roberts played in those orchestras?
Any recommended recordings?

[Tom Gregory]

Pittsburgh-ca.’47-‘50
Cleveland-1950-67
San Francisco -1967-69
Chautauqua-1950-1972

[Bill Troiano]

Back in the early 70's my roommate (and one of my best friends, a trumpet player who is recently deceased) and I decided that we would like a lesson with Chester Roberts, as he was big on air and wind or we thought we could benefit from him. We phoned him from our school (what a deep, booming voice he had) and scheduled a lesson during the winter break. My roommate drove down from Rochester, NY to Long Island and we then drove to Boston. We spent the night with another friend in Boston. The next day, we woke up early and it was snowing hard. We hit the road in my 67 Dodge Dart to drive to Chester's house, which was around an hour outside Boston and in nowhere land. We got stuck in the snow a few times, but managed to get free and continue our trip. All that we had was general directions to his house that Chester had given us. We got to a point where we could barely see due to the snow. I thought the house should be around where we were, but I couldn't see any houses or mailboxes with numbers. I was afraid to stop because we might get stuck. Then, we heard the voice of God. I rolled down my window and we heard this booming voice, "Bill! Bob! Up here." Then, I was able to see a figure up on a hill calling to us. We thought it's either Chester or God. We managed to get up the hill and finally saw a house and Chester standing there.

He was so happy that we managed to make it there. Once inside, we talked and he gave us coffee. Then, we each had a lesson, which was mainly a breathing lesson, with not a lot of time on the horns. I went second and I was still a bit dizzy when we left. Somehow we managed to get back to Boston that day. I'll always remember that day and the time I spent with him.