The following three letters were sent by John Minsker in reaction to an article by music critic Daniel Webster that was published in the Philadelphia Inquirer on May 14th, 1988.
The first is a Letter to the Editor, the second one is to Robert Bloom, and the third to Richard Woodhams. The full article appears below the letters.
Click the image below to view the full Philadelphia Inquirer article (pdf).
Biographies
John (Henry) Minsker (1912-2007) was among Marcel Tabuteau’s most devoted disciples. He came to Philadelphia from his native West Virginia specifically to study with Marcel Tabuteau. Entering the Curtis Institute in 1931, he left in 1934 to take the English horn position in the Detroit Symphony. Two years later, with Bloom’s departure for Rochester, he returned to Philadelphia as English hornist in the Orchestra under Stokowski, for which he was the last solo chair hired by the legendary conductor. He and Bloom had developed considerable rapport when they played together in the Robin Hood Dell Orchestra (the summer incarnation of the Philadelphia Orchestra) in 1934 and 1936. Based on those experiences, Minsker believed he knew Bloom well. The address he notes on Pine Street was where Bloom lived with his wife, Victoria Murdoch, a young harpist in the orchestra.
Minsker played with Tabuteau in the Philadelphia Orchestra from his 1936 arrival until Tabuteau’s departure early in 1954. He found Tabuteau’s playing a source of infinite musical delight and inspiration, both aesthetically and technically, and admired the man unstintingly. It is very likely that he was closer to Tabuteau than anyone else in the oboe section. He continued with the orchestra until the autumn of 1959, when he decided to leave for personal reasons. At the request of John de Lancie, he assumed the Marcel Tabuteau Chair at the Curtis Institute, where he taught from 1979 until de Lancie’s unfortunately abrupt departure in 1985. He retained extraordinary alertness of mind until his very last days and remained a staunch supporter of everything that Tabuteau and Stokowski had stood for.
Robert Bloom (1908-1994) was accepted by Tabuteau as an oboe student at the Curtis Institute with very little playing experience. In three years, by 1930, he was already in the Philadelphia Orchestra, quite a remarkable attainment for a very young musician. As Stokowski was dissatisfied with the incumbent English hornist, he requested that Bloom take the position. Bloom confessed that he had had no previous experience on the instrument, but Stokowski wanted him to do so anyway. Everything worked out superbly, and Bloom arguably became the most important exponent of the instrument in North America at the time. His tenure in this position lasted only four seasons, 1932-1936, at which point he left to become principal oboe of the Eastman-Rochester Symphony, at the specific invitation of its conductor, Jose Iturbi. He remained in Rochester one season only, departing for New York to be principal oboe in the then new NBC Symphony under Toscanini, with whom he developed a notable rapport.
He found free-lance work more to his liking and left NBC during the war. He became quite probably the busiest oboist in New York in this period, playing with an extraordinary variety of ensembles, including some in the popular area. Perhaps most prominent was his membership in the Bach Aria Group under Dr. William Scheide. Here, Bloom’s work as a soloist came to the fore both onstage and in recordings, of which the ensemble made a great many. More than anything else, this secured for him a national reputation. He also composed, arranged and edited early music for the oboe, in addition to producing a volume of memoirs. In his later years he also taught quite prominently at the Juilliard School, Yale University and elsewhere, producing a number of disciples. In 1988, in celebration of his 80th birthday, friends and colleagues held a commemoration for him at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, New York City.
Richard Woodhams (1949- ) longtime principal oboist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, studied with John de Lancie at the Curtis Institute, after which he was principal oboist of the Saint Louis Symphony, beginning in 1969. In 1977, with John de Lancie’s departure from the Philadelphia Orchestra to direct the Curtis Institute of Music, Woodhams was brought to Philadelphia to fill his former teacher’s chair, which he did with considerable distinction until his retirement in 2018. (It is a matter of likely unequalled continuity in any major orchestra that the Philadelphia Orchestra had only three principal oboists over a 103-year period: Marcel Tabuteau from fall 1915 to early 1954, his student John de Lancie from early 1954 until spring 1977, and his student Richard Woodhams from fall 1977 to spring 2018.) From 1985 until 2021, Woodhams was also professor of oboe at the Curtis Institute of Music, as had been his teacher and his teacher’s teacher, who were also his two predecessors in the Philadelphia Orchestra, an extraordinary manifestation producing a solid and notable tradition.
Vincent J. (“Jimmy”) Abato (1919-2008) was a highly admired clarinetist and saxophonist for many years in New York City. He played in an infinite variety of locations and in virtually every type of musical ensemble, including on television. His most notable stint was as the longtime bass clarinetist of the Metropolitan Opera. He also was for a considerable period professor of saxophone at the Juilliard School. (N.B: not Abbato)