William Vacchiano

William Vacchiano (born 1912 in Portland , Maine, † September 19, 2005 in New York City ) was an American trumpeter and university teacher.

Musical career

The decision to learn the trumpet is said to be based on a misunderstanding: The father, who speaks Italian at home, suggested that the boy should start on a “clarinetto”, William probably understood “Cornetto”, and the music teacher Senor De Nobili then looked for a suitable instrument for him from the fund of the music school. The father was annoyed when the son came home with the "wrong" part; the mother's comment is said to have been: “What does that matter? He shouldn't be a professor. "

While in high school, he played with the Portland Municipal Symphony Orchestra at the age of 14 and was an unofficial member of the 242nd Coast Artillery Band.

From 1931 he studied with Max Schlossberg at the New York Institute of Musical Art (later Juilliard School ). In 1935 he applied to play trumpet with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic . He passed both auditions on the same day and received a contract each. The manager of the Metropolitan, Simone Mantia, advised him to go to the New York Philharmonic, led by Arturo Toscanini , as this was the better place.

Vacchiano took this advice. After seven years as the second trumpeter, he took over the position of first trumpeter and kept it for 31 years.

He played under world-famous conductors such as Leonard Bernstein , Dmitri Mitropoulos , Leopold Stokowski , Igor Stravinsky , George Szell and Bruno Walter .

His outstanding technique was to lead the way in the development of a modern way of playing the trumpet in the 20th century.

Teaching

William Vacchiano was professor at the Juilliard School from 1935 to 2002, at the Manhattan School of Music from 1935 to 2002 (other sources: 1937 to 1999) and at the Mannes College of Music from 1937 to 1983.

In 1995 he took stock and estimated that more than 2,000 musicians were trained by him who performed or are still active in almost all major American orchestras and opera houses.

Some of his most famous students are Joseph Alessi, Sr. , Miles Davis , Wynton Marsalis , Ronald Romm , Philip Smith, and Gerard Schwarz .

Vacchiano brought a series of mouthpieces of his own design and published methodical textbooks.

Web links

• Literature by and about William Vacchiano in the catalog of the German National Library