Elisa Koehler, reporter

Brian Shook, a DMA candidate at Arizona State University, presented an extremely informative session on the life and career of famed trumpeter William Vacchiano (1912-2005). Using PowerPoint slides with abundant photos, audio examples and video clips, Shook treated the audience to a well-prepared banquet of information. Shook's recent article on Vacchiano (the subject of his dissertation) appeared in the March 2006 ITG Journal and he plans to expand his research into a book in the future.

Beginning with Vacchiano's early musical training in Portland, Maine, Shook explained that it was only by mistake that the great trumpeter first learned the instrument. His Italian father had instructed him to play the “clarinetto” in the band, but when the teacher (who was also Italian), offered him the “cornetto,” young Vacchiano, confused by the similar names, chose the latter. Following early studies with the symphonic trumpeters George Mager and Louis Kloepfel as well as cornetist Walter Smith and others, Vacchiano made rapid progress and gained valuable performance experience in the Portland Symphony while just a teenager.

Wary of earning a living in music after the Stock Market Crash of 1929, Vacchiano's attempted to study accounting at St. John's University, but ironically landed at Julliard (then called the Institute of Musical Art), when Max Schlossberg granted him a full scholarship after a preliminary lesson. Indeed, Shook detailed how deep Schlossberg's formative influence was on Vacchiano, especially in his focus on fundamentals and his characteristic “Rules of Orchestral Performance.”

Perhaps the most interesting portion of the clinic covered Vacchiano's storied career with the New York Philharmonic and his unique teamwork with his colleagues. Through enlightening video examples taken from Bernstein's “Young People's Concerts” (all of which feature Vacchiano as principal trumpet), creative doubling (in Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra) and sharing of assistant duties (in the “Ballerina's Dance” from Stravinsky's Petroushka) were demonstrated. Shook detailed Vacchiano's teaching methods by emphasizing his preference for transposition and sight reading as a way of strengthening a trumpeter's overall musicianship.

The session ended with an open forum during which those in the audience asked questions and spoke fondly of their experiences with this great musician, teacher, and gentleman.