Schlueter, Charles

Professor and trumpeter from Du Quoin, Illinois, who studied under the tutelage of Charles Archibald at ten years of age and performed in cornet solo contests at eleven and twelve. His renditions of Frank H. Losey’s “Addah Polka” and “Zaraida Polka” both received ones. At twelve years of age, he performed Herman Bellstedt’s arrangement of the “Carnival of Venice” for about 15,000 folks at the Du Quoin State Fair. This was followed by another solo contest, at which he interpreted Alexander Goedicke’s “Concert Etude”.

Another, non-musical contest—a coloring contest, no less—led to some free music lessons from Don Lemasters. He continued his studies at Du Quoin Township High School with the band director, Mel Siener, and then Edward Brauer, in St. Louis, Missouri.

In 1957, he auditioned for Juilliard and was accepted. Here he honed his playing skills under the watchful eye of William Vacchiano, who occupied the New York Philharmonic’s Principal Trumpet Chair.

In 1962, he graduated, and went on to become the Associate Principal Trumpet of The Cleveland Orchestra. Other groups with whom he performed include BRASSIL, the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra, the Jazz Orchestra of J.U. Da Silva, the Kansas City Philharmonic, the Kansas City Symphony, the Kyushu Symphony, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Sakuyo Wind Orchestra, and the Tokyo City Philharmonic. In 1981, he became the Principal Trumpet of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and he stayed with them for a quarter of a century.

In the field of music education, he created a series of master classes in Belem, Campinas, Joao Pessoa, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Sao Luis, Sao Paulo, and Vitoria, Brazil.

He appeared on a handful of CDs in the 1990s, such as Bravura Trumpet, Classics Remembered, Greatest Hits: Trumpet, and Red, White & Brass, and the soundtrack of Michael Collins.

He started The Charles Schlueter Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to helping brass musicians improve in the areas of communication, education, and performance, in 2001.

More recordings followed in the new millennium, including the soundtrack of Mystic River, Trumpet Concertos, Trumpet Works, and Virtuoso Trumpet.

In 2006, he retired from the BSO and the Boston Musicians Association named him their Musician of the Year.

He has since appeared on a pair of CDs, Let the Trumpet Sound and A Song from the Heart, which is something of a musical autobiography: All of the songs have a personal meaning for him, as suggested by the title track by Eric Ewazen, which was written for Dennis Caron, co-founder of The Charles Schlueter Foundation, upon his retirement. Two other tracks, “Marsha’s Gift” and “Symphonic Memories”, were penned for Marsha Caron, another co-founder, and Charles, upon their retirements, respectively. Much of the rest of the album contains new recordings of material he performed in his youth, such as “Flight of the Bumble Bee”, “Sounds from the Hudson”, “To the West Caprice”, and “Trumpeter’s Lullaby”.

The Principal Brass of the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestra recordings
Canzon in Double Echo (Giovanni Gabrieli)
Arranger – Arthur Frackenpohl

Sources:

Schlueter, Charles

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