Marcel Tabuteau

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Marcel Tabuteau in 1915

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

[edit] Life

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

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

[edit] Legacy

Tabuteau's many notable oboe students included John Angelucci, John de Lancie, John Mack, William Criss, Joseph Robinson, Marc Lifschey, Harold Gomberg, Ralph Gomberg, Robert Bloom, Al Genovese, Donald Baker 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."[1]