Legacy of Bassoon

J. Walter Guetter, born into the revered Guetter and Moennig instrument-making families, was principal bassoon of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1922 until his untimely death in 1937, and thus part of that coterie of superlative instrumentalists who helped to establish the orchestra’s legendary status. Guetter’s teaching at Curtis was complemented by assistant principal Ferdinand del Negro, renowned as a contrabassoon player and for his impressive staccato, who played in the Philadelphia Orchestra for an extraordinary 40 years. In the years leading up to World War II, Simon Kovar, born in present-day Lithuania, brought his Russian conservatory training to Curtis. In St. Petersburg, Kovar had initially studied the violin with the renowned Leopold Auer, who also immigrated to the United States and taught at Curtis. Alexander Glazunov, famed Russian composer and director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, encouraged many of the violin students at the school to switch to a wind instrument so they could play with the military bands rather than be drafted into the infantry. Kovar switched to the bassoon but still incorporated the lessons Auer had imparted to him on the importance of long tones, tone quality, and the early study of difficult repertoire and later passed them down to his own students.

Two of Kovar’s students were future faculty members Bernard Garfield and Sol Schoenbach. Both were illustrious principals of the Philadelphia Orchestra: Schoenbach from 1937–57 and Garfield from 1957–99. Garfield in particular remained a proponent of Kovar’s manner of playing, saying that it produced an “attractive sound, an even flow from note to note, accurate rhythms, [and] expression to suit the phrase.” Schoenbach would become known not only for his prowess as a player, but also his wider contributions to the improvement of the classical music world. Working closely with the Moennig company, famous for their artfully crafted wind instruments, Schoenbach introduced the addition of new keys and other improvements to the bassoon to ameliorate technical problems. He was also a champion for musicians’ rights, working to advocate for his fellow members of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Schoenbach organized their pension fund, helped found the orchestra’s credit union, and, perhaps most significantly, wrote the tenure clause found in their contracts.

Later in life, Schoenbach served for many years as the executive director for another Philadelphia institution, Settlement Music School, growing its enrollment from around 700 students to nearly 3,000 to support the school’s mission of expanding the reach of music education and access to the arts.

The rich history of the bassoon department is reflected in Curtis’s current faculty and in the careers of its alumni. The school’s five current bassoon students benefit from the pedagogical expertise gleaned from their teachers’ own experiences at Curtis. Both Daniel Matsukawa (’92), principal of the Philadelphia Orchestra since 2000, and Adrian Morejon (Bassoon and Harpsichord ’03), chamber music instructor and member of the Dorian Wind Quintet, studied with Bernard Garfield. Other distinguished alumni have similarly built upon the Curtis bassoon legacy: Anthony Checchia (’51), founder of the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society; Mark Gigliotti (’79), son of Anthony Gigliotti and co-principal of the Philadelphia Orchestra; and Holly Blake (’80), contrabassoon player for the Philadelphia Orchestra.