Marion Jalbert (Norcross) of Moorestown, NJ, began music lessons on clarinet in the 6th grade, adding oboe in the 10th grade. She played in her High School Orchestra and Band, and in the New Jersey All State Orchestra and Band. Following her graduation, she enrolled at Trenton State Teacher’s College (now the College of New Jersey) to pursue a career in music. As an oboe major, she took six lessons with Marcel Tabuteau for one quarter, right before Tabuteau left for France, following his retirement from the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1954. After graduating from college in 1957, she raised a family, gave private oboe lessons, and performed on oboe and English horn in the Haddonfield Symphony (now Symphony in C), Cherry Hill Wind Symphony, and the Philharmonic of South Jersey.
Presently living at Medford Leas, a retirement community in South Jersey, she reminisced about her lessons with Tabuteau with Editorial Board member, Marc Mostovoy, who, coincidentally, lives in the same retirement community.
Recorded by Dave Bartram