James Thurmond

James Morgan Thurmond (1909–1998) had a long and varied career in both professional performance and music education. He is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied horn with Anton Horner and ensemble playing with Marcel Tabuteau among others. While at Curtis he absorbed Tabuteau’s phrasing concepts and published a book in 1982 based on those concepts: Note Grouping: A Method for achieving Expression and Style in Musical Performance. Below, as an example, Thurmond analyzes the opening measures of Tabuteau’s recorded performance of the Handle G Minor Concerto:

The above is excerpted from: Thurmond, James Morgan. Note Grouping: A Method for Achieving Expression and Style in Musical Performance. Camp Hill (PA): JMT Publications, 1982; and Meredith Music Publications, 2000, pp. 117-119.

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An audio interview with Joan Browne (Champie), a private Tabuteau student in the early 1950s.

A photograph of the music stand that was in Tabuteau’s private studio in Philadelphia.

An autographed photo of Marcel Tabuteau inscribed to Vladimir Sokoloff.

An autographed photo of Marcel Tabuteau inscribed to Joan Browne Champie.

With the passing of Wilbur Isaac Hilles in August 2023 and now Martha Scherer-Alfee in February 2024, no oboe students of Marcel Tabuteau at the Curtis Institute are still living.

A letter sent to the Curtis Institute by Laila Storch’s mother about Tabuteau not teaching at Curtis—and the reply.