Marcel Tabuteau

Marcel Tabuteau in 1915

Marcel Tabuteau (2 July 1887 - 4 January 1966) was a French oboist who is generally considered the founder of the American school of oboe playing.

Life

Tabuteau was born in Compiègne, Oise, France, and was given a post with the city's municipal wind band at age eleven. He then studied at the Paris Conservatoire with the legendary Georges Gillet.

Walter Damrosch brought Tabuteau, together with the French musicians flutist Georges Barrère, bassoonist Auguste Mesnard, clarinetist Leon Leroy and Belgian trumpeter Adolphe Dubois to New York in 1905 to play in his New York Symphony Orchestra. Damrosch was fined by the musician's union for not advertising for musicians from New York, but the emigrating musicians were allowed to stay.^[1][2]

Tabuteau served as principal oboist of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1915 to 1954 under the famous Leopold Stokowski and, just as importantly, taught in Philadelphia at the Curtis Institute of Music. There his classes included Oboe, Woodwind Ensemble, Orchestral Winds/Percussion Class, and String Classes. He taught at Curtis from its founding in 1924 until his retirement in 1953.

Legacy

Tabuteau's many notable oboe students included Rhadames Angelucci, Joseph Robinson, John de Lancie, Marc Lifschey, John Mack, Felix Kraus, John Minsker, William "Bill" Criss, Daniel Stolper, Harold Gomberg, Ralph Gomberg, Robert Bloom, Alfred Genovese, Donald Baker, Wayne Rapier, and Laila Storch. Storch some years afterward wrote: "During the thirty years during which Tabuteau taught at the Curtis Institute of Music, he came to exercise a decisive influence on the standards of oboe playing in the whole United States, as well as raising the level of woodwind achievement in general. Nor was the impact of his teaching confined to winds alone, as the many string players and pianists who attended his classes will testify."^[3]

References

1. ^ [no author cited], Damrosch Fined $1,000; Didn't Consult Union, The New York Times, June 1, 1905.
2. ^ Shilkret, Nathaniel, ed. Shell, Niel and Barbara Shilkret, Nathaniel Shilkret: Sixty Years in the Music Business, Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland, 2005, p. 27; see also caption to centerfold picture of Henri Leon Leroy. ISBN 0810851288
3. ^ Marcel Tabiteau, profile written by Laila Storch and published by To the World's Oboists by the International Double Reed Society, Boulder, Colorado

External links

• Marcel Tabuteau, profile written by Laila Storch and published by To the World's Oboists by the International Double Reed Society, Boulder, Colorado^{[dead link]}
• A Little Garlic, an article about Marcel Tabuteau in Time Magazine, Nov. 20, 1939
• Quelques photos ! (in french)
• Marcel Tabuteau: How Do You Expect to Play the Oboe If You Can't Peel a Mushroom?

Persondata
Name	Tabuteau, Marcel
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	2 July 1887
Place of birth
Date of death	4 January 1966
Place of death