Adolph Sylvester (Bud) Herseth, (born July 25, 1921) was principal trumpet in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1948 until 2001, and served as principal trumpet emeritus from 2001 until his retirement in 2004.
Bud Herseth was born in Lake Park, MN. Herseth graduated from Luther College in Iowa with a degree in mathematics prior to serving as a musician with the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was a student of Boston Symphony Orchestra trumpeters Marcel LaFosse (second trumpet) and Georges Mager (principal trumpet) at the New England Conservatory of Music.
His ancestors came from Norway, so in 1977 he visited Norway to see the places where his relatives lived in the municipality of Stange in Hedmark County.
Herseth is widely regarded as one of the greatest orchestral trumpeters of his generation.[1]
As the principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony for 53 years, Herseth performed under Bruno Walter, George Szell, Eugene Ormandy, Leonard Bernstein, James Levine, Claudio Abbado, and many other prominent orchestral conductors. His tenure in the orchestra spanned the time of 6 different CSO music directors - Artur Rodziński (1947-48), Rafael Kubelik (1950-53), Fritz Reiner (1953-1962), Jean Martinon (1963-1968), Sir Georg Solti (1969-1991), and Daniel Barenboim (1991-2006).
Herseth's tenure as principal trumpet spanned the Reiner years, during which the orchestra rose to prominence, due in part to the powerful and precise sound of its brass section. As explained by the Telegraph in London on Sept. 18, 2009, “The orchestra’s rise to fame began with the great Fritz Reiner in the Fifties, but it was during the 22-year reign of the fierce Hungarian Georg Solti that the orchestra became the brawny yet subtle precision instrument that it is today, famed especially for its noble and stupendously powerful brass sound.” A Smithsonian profile of Herseth, published Sept. 1, 1994, offered this description: “The Chicago has long been recognized as one of the world’s great orchestras, and Adolph Sylvester Herseth has had a major role in the evolution of its distinctive sound.” As described in the Chicago Sun-Times, July 22, 2001, “For decades Herseth's rich, golden tone and powerful yet expressive playing were a cornerstone of the fabled ‘Chicago Sound.’” That brass sound drew worldwide attention to the CSO, and propelled the great American orchestra’s reputation around the globe." According to an entry on the Chicago History Museum's online history of the city, the CSO’s "unmistakable sound and high standard of performance helped define the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as a world class institution. It also made Chicago an international center for the study of brass instrument performance."
Herseth retired in 2001. The position he occupied is now named after him - The Adolph Herseth Principal Trumpet Chair.