John Mack (musician)

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John Mack

John Mack (October 30, 1927 – July 23, 2006) was a renowned American oboist.

Born in Somerville, New Jersey, Mack attended the Juilliard School of Music, studying oboe with Harold Gomberg and Bruno Labate and then at the Curtis Institute of Music with Marcel Tabuteau, the longtime principal oboe of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

His first professional experience was with the Sadler Wells Ballet's American tour in 1951-1952. Afterwards he was appointed principal oboist of the New Orleans Symphony, taught briefly at Louisiana State University, and then played with the National Symphony Orchestra from 1963-1965. He was also principal oboist at the Casals Festivals in Prades and Perpignan, France.

Mack was appointed by George Szell as principal oboist of the Cleveland Orchestra in 1965 and remained there playing peerlessly under Szell and his successors Lorin Maazel and Christoph von Dohnanyi until 2001 when he retired.

"Teaching," Mack once said, "is close to a sacred duty.” He was the Chairman of Oboe Studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music and served on the faculty of the Juilliard School of Music in New York and Hartt School in Hartford. He also taught at the John Mack Oboe Camp, a yearly summer event in Little Switzerland, North Carolina.

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's Oboe Concerto was commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra to honor his 25th anniversary with the orchestra and he duly performed the world premiere.

Mack died in Cleveland, Ohio of brain cancer.