Legacy of Trumpet

A gifted trumpeter with diverse musical interests, Caston graduated from the school with a degree in conducting in the mid-1930s, which he accomplished while continuing to educate the first generation of Curtis trumpet students. He eventually became assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra under both Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy. In 1945, with the orchestra department at Curtis still suspended due to the war, Caston left Philadelphia to assume the position of music director of the Denver Symphony Orchestra. During his nineteen-year tenure with the orchestra, Caston conducted numerous faculty from Curtis including cellist Gregor Piatigorsky and pianists Rudolf Serkin and Leon Fleisher.

When director Efrem Zimbalist reinstated the orchestra department in 1947, one of Caston’s students, Samuel Krauss (’34), took up his former teacher’s position on the trumpet faculty (he also replaced Caston as principal trumpet in the Philadelphia Orchestra). Following Krauss’s two-decade tenure at Curtis, the legacy established by Saul Caston continued with the appointment of Krauss’s student Gilbert Johnson (’50). While at Curtis, Johnson taught brass chamber music and continued his prolific recording career both as the orchestra’s principal trumpet and as a member of the legendary Philadelphia Brass Ensemble.

Frank Kaderabek joined the faculty upon Johnson’s departure in 1975. His appointment marked the first time in Curtis’s then-50-year history that a Curtis graduate had not served as trumpet instructor. Kaderabek remained a fixture of Curtis for more than 30 years, becoming the longest-serving of any trumpet faculty at the school. Kevin Cobb (’93), one of Kaderabek’s many students at Curtis, today passes on the lessons learned in Kaderabek’s studio to his own students at prestigious conservatories including the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and the Juilliard School and as a member of the venerable American Brass Quintet.

The current studio of five trumpet students profits from the combined instruction of David Bilger and Jeffrey Curnow. Since 1997 David Bilger has taught trumpet, orchestral repertoire, and chamber music while continuing to serve as principal trumpet of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Jeffrey Curnow, associate principal trumpet of the Philadelphia Orchestra, brings decades of performing experience in renowned ensembles including the Empire Brass Quintet and the New York Trumpet Ensemble to his chamber ensemble instruction.