The Bach Aria Group is an ensemble of vocal and instrumental musicians that was created in 1946 by William H. Scheide in New York City to perform the works of J. S. Bach .
15-639: The American Bach scholar William H. Scheide brought together a group of New York musicians in 1946 to perform arias from Bach's cantatas and other works. Besides setting the artistic goals and policies, Scheide also helped fund the group, making up for any financial deficits from his own resources. The five original singers were sopranos Ellen Osborn and Jean Carlton, alto Margaret Tobias, tenor Robert Harmon, and bass-baritone Norman Farrow. The five instrumentalists who accompanied them were violinist Maurice Welk, oboist Robert Bloom , flutist Julius Baker , 'cellist David Soyer, and keyboard player Sergius Kagen . Over
30-458: A 7-CD set of live performances of concertos, chamber music, and Bach arias performed by Bloom over his 60-year career was released in 2001 on Boston Records label. Bloom's daughter, Kath Bloom is a singer-songwriter and music therapist based in Litchfield, CT. Marcel Tabuteau Marcel Tabuteau (2 July 1887 – 4 January 1966) was a French-American oboist who is considered
45-566: A lower "Baroque pitch" (A=415 Hz). The singers changed more frequently, but in the 1980s they included soprano Susan Davenny Wyner, alto Janice Taylor, tenor Seth McCoy, and bass Thomas Paul. Later singers included soprano Carol Webber, altos Jan DeGaetani, D'Anna Fortunato and Mary Westbrook-Geha, tenor David Britton and baritone William Sharp . In 2001 the membership included flutist Tara Helen O'Connor, Daniel Phillips, Timothy Eddy, Yehudi Wyner , with soprano Beverly Hoch and bass John Stephens. A concert announcement for 2012 indicates that
60-615: A summer program at Stony Brook University on Long Island . The Institute and Festival continued its operations until the summer of 1997, training an entire generation of American performers of Bach's music. The membership continued to change through the years. In the 1980s and 1990s the instrumentalists in the group included Samuel Baron, oboist Ronald Roseman, violinist Daniel Phillips, 'cellist Timothy Eddy, and keyboard player Yehudi Wyner . They continued to perform on modern instruments and at modern pitch (A=440 Hz), even after other groups changed to reproductions of Baroque instruments at
75-707: Is considered seminal in the development of an American school of oboe playing. At the Curtis Institute of Music Bloom was a pupil of Marcel Tabuteau for three years. In the 1930s he played English horn in the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski and first oboe in the Rochester Philharmonic under José Iturbi . He was the principal oboe in Arturo Toscanini 's NBC Symphony Orchestra from 1937 to 1943. Bloom plays on recordings by
90-827: The Columbia Symphony and the RCA Symphony . In 1946 Bloom was one of the founding members of the Bach Aria Group , with which he played until 1980. Recordings by the Bach Aria Group featuring Bloom started appearing from the late 1940s. Bloom transcribed and elaborated 18th-century masterworks for the oboe. His own compositions include a Sonatina for oboe and piano. Bloom was a professor at Yale and Juilliard . His pupils include William Bennett , Bill Douglas , Tim Hurtz, Richard Killmer, Bert Lucarelli, Ray Still , Allan Vogel , and Richard Woodhams , In
105-474: The Curtis Institute of Music . There his classes included Oboe, Woodwind and String Ensembles, Orchestral Winds/Percussion Class, and combined ensembles. He taught at Curtis from 1925 until his retirement in 1954. During the thirty years Tabuteau taught at the Curtis Institute of Music, he came to exercise a decisive influence on the standards of oboe playing in the whole United States, as well as raising
120-419: The 1950s. They also performed with many important orchestras as a solo group in the larger works of Bach, especially his Passions. They also made many recordings at that time. After more than 30 years of leadership, Scheide announced that he would disband the ensemble in 1980, proclaiming that "his aim had been accomplished". However, by that time its performance style had grown out of fashion, not in line with
135-704: The Conservatoire, allowing him to be demobilized after just one year of service. He returned to the United States in 1907 and the union again tried to have him expelled, on the grounds that there had been a break in his US residence since filing his first citizenship papers. The union was unsuccessful and Tabuteau became a US citizen in 1912. Tabuteau served as principal oboist of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1915 to 1954 under Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy , and just as importantly, taught in Philadelphia at
150-680: The founder of the American school of oboe playing. Tabuteau was born in Compiègne , Oise , France, and given a post in the city's municipal wind band at age eleven. He then studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with the legendary oboist Georges Gillet . Walter Damrosch brought Tabuteau, along with French musicians flutist Georges Barrère , bassoonist Auguste Mesnard, clarinetist Leon Leroy, and Belgian trumpeter Adolphe Dubois, to New York in 1905 to play in his New York Symphony Orchestra . Damrosch
165-471: The growing "authentic performance" movement. But instead of disbanding, flutist Samuel Baron (who joined the ensemble in 1965) asked to take over the leadership of the group, and Mr. Scheide happily agreed. After a year of rebuilding in 1981, they resumed their performance and touring schedule, and they developed a highly successful workshop for performers, the Bach Aria Festival and Institute , as
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#1732855543218180-530: The membership has not changed recently. Its papers, music collection, and other historical documents are now held in the Music Division of the Library of Congress Robert Bloom Robert Bloom (May 3, 1908 – February 13, 1994) was an oboist with an orchestral and solo career, a composer and arranger contributing to the oboe repertory , and a teacher of several successful oboists. Bloom
195-506: The spring of 1988, friends, colleagues, and former pupils gathered in Lincoln Center 's Alice Tully Hall in New York for an 80th-birthday tribute. A few years after Bloom's death in 1994, his widow, Sara Lambert Bloom, published The Robert Bloom Collection , scores and parts to his 21 editions of 18th-century masterworks, 10 transcriptions, and 10 compositions. The Art of Robert Bloom ,
210-477: The years there were changes in personnel: cellist Bernard Greenhouse replaced David Soyer, and keyboard players Erich Itor Kahn and Paul Ulanowsky came after Sergius Kagen . Several important singers were later guests or regular members, including Jennie Tourel , Lois Marshall , Richard Lewis , Mack Harrell , Jan Peerce , Eileen Farrell , and Maureen Forrester . The ensemble made its Carnegie Hall debut in 1948, and made regular concert tours beginning in
225-499: Was fined by the musicians' union for not advertising for musicians from New York, but the emigrating musicians were allowed to stay. In 1906 Tabuteau returned to France to complete his three years of compulsory military service as a French citizen, and served as a military musician in the regimental band of the 45th Infantry Regiment in Compiègne. A French law that had been enacted on July 11, 1892 gave special consideration to graduates of
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