Legacy of Trombone and Tuba

Founding tuba faculty Philip Donatelli helped lead Curtis through its first eighteen years. Little written history on Donatelli remains, but his legacy endures primarily through two separate influences on American tuba playing: his students and his contributions to tuba design. Donatelli taught several prominent tubists while at Curtis including Arnold Jacobs (’36), one of the most influential brass pedagogues of the 20th century. Several of Jacobs’s students would eventually teach at Curtis, including trombone faculty M. Dee Stewart and Charles Vernon, and tuba faculty Abe Torchinsky (’41), one of Donatelli’s last students at Curtis.

As noted in Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, “widespread use of the trombone is a result of the burgeoning of wind bands and brass bands in the mid-19th century in towns, villages and workplaces all over Europe and North America.” Several founding brass faculty members, including Anton Horner and Philip Donatelli, spent time in such bands, most notably the John Philip Sousa Band. Gardell Simons, Curtis’s founding trombone faculty, even spent time playing in the Wallace Brothers Circus. Glenn Dodson (’53), who taught at Curtis for almost 30 years, was the school’s longest- serving trombone instructor. His passion for the instrument took on many forms: from his time as a Marine Corps Band soloist to the formation of multiple small ensembles, including the still-extant Posaune Decuple.

Two of the first three trombone faculty at Curtis, Paul Lotz and Charles Gerhard, had been inaugural musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1900; Simons, the first person appointed to the school’s trombone faculty, was later recruited to the orchestra by Stokowski. Following the reinstatement of Curtis’s orchestra department in 1947, trombonist Charles Gusikoff took over shared duties teaching trombone, tuba, and brass ensemble. Gusikoff, as well as Saul Caston, descended from a notable Russian musical family whose patriarch, Josef Gusikov, was a touring xylophonist who helped introduce klezmer music to Western ears. Like other brass faculty, he had early career success in the John Philip Sousa Band. Henry Charles Smith III (’55), one of Gusikoff’s students, later joined him on the brass faculty, where he also taught both trombone and tuba. Smith later used his positions as conductor of several ensembles to commission new pieces for the euphonium, an often-neglected solo instrument.

The present tuba and trombone faculty continue the traditions of excellence established by preceding Curtis faculty and alumni, traditions they impart to the five tuba and trombone students (one tuba, three tenor trombones, and one bass trombone) currently enrolled at the school. Blair Bollinger (’86), bass trombonist for the Philadelphia Orchestra, is the orchestra’s first—and, to date, only—bass trombone soloist.

Trombonist Nitzan Haroz studied with Joseph Alessi (’81) as a student at the Juilliard School, and Matthew Vaughn studied with former trombone faculty M. Dee Stewart. Craig Knox (’89) has had a wide-ranging performance career that has run the gamut from recording film scores to premiering the Tuba Concerto by composition faculty Jennifer Higdon (’88) under the baton of Robert Spano (Conducting ’85). Knox studied with Paul Krzywicki, who has brought his pedagogy and scholarly insights to the school for 50 years.

The sixteen students currently enrolled at Curtis as brass instrumentalists benefit from the diverse performing and educational experiences of the brass faculty. Whether in private lessons, studio class, or repertoire and chamber ensemble instruction, the faculty bring combined decades of experience to their lessons as they impart their wisdom to new generations of musical artists.