John Mack (Sunday, October 30, 1927 – Sunday, July 23, 2006) was an American

oboist An oboist (formerly hautboist) is a musician who plays the oboe or any oboe family instrument, including the oboe d'amore, cor anglais or English horn, bass oboe and piccolo oboe or oboe musette. The following is a list of notable past and pres ...

. Born in

Somerville, New Jersey Somerville is a borough and the county seat of Somerset County, New Jersey, United States.New Je ...

, Mack attended the

Juilliard The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...

School of Music, studying oboe with Harold Gomberg and Bruno Labate and then at the

Curtis Institute of Music The Curtis Institute of Music is a private conservatory in Philadelphia. It offers a performance diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in opera, and a Professional Studies Certificate in opera. All students attend on full scholarship. Hi ...

with

Marcel Tabuteau Marcel Tabuteau (2 July 18874 January 1966) was a French-American oboist who is considered the founder of the American school of oboe playing. Life Tabuteau was born in Compiègne, Oise, France, and given a post in the city's municipal wind band ...

, the longtime principal oboe of the

Philadelphia Orchestra The Philadelphia Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of the " Big Five" American orchestras, the orchestra is based at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where it performs its subscription ...

. His first professional experience was with the Sadler Wells Ballet's American tour in 1951-1952. Afterwards he was appointed principal oboist of the

New Orleans Symphony The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is an American orchestra based in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the only full-time, professional orchestra in the Gulf South. The orchestra performs at the Orpheum Theater. The Louisiana Philharmonic O ...

, taught briefly at

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

, and then played with the

National Symphony Orchestra The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1930, its principal performing venue is the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It also performs for the annual National Mem ...

from 1963-1965. He was also principal oboist at the

Casals Festival The Casals Festival is a classical music event celebrated every year in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in honor of classical musician Pablo Casals. Background The festival was founded in 1956 by Pablo Casals. It was promoted by Teodoro Moscoso and Davi ...

s in Prades and

Perpignan Perpignan (, , ; ca, Perpinyà ; es, Perpiñán ; it, Perpignano ) is the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France, in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees a few kilometres from the ...

, France. Mack was appointed by

George Szell George Szell (; June 7, 1897 – July 30, 1970), originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell, was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer. He is widely considered one of the twentieth century's greatest condu ...

as principal oboist of the

Cleveland Orchestra The Cleveland Orchestra, based in Cleveland, is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the " Big Five". Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Sev ...

in 1965, succeeding Marc Lifschey, and remained there playing under Szell and his successors

Lorin Maazel Lorin Varencove Maazel (, March 6, 1930 – July 13, 2014) was an American conductor, violinist and composer. He began conducting at the age of eight and by 1953 had decided to pursue a career in music. He had established a reputation in th ...

and

Christoph von Dohnanyi Christoph is a male given name and surname. It is a German language, German variant of Christopher (given name), Christopher. Notable people with the given name Christoph * Christoph Bach (musician), Christoph Bach (1613–1661), German musician * ...

until 2001 when he retired. "Teaching," Mack once said, "is close to a sacred duty." He was the Chairman of Oboe Studies at the

Cleveland Institute of Music The Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) is a private music conservatory in Cleveland, Ohio. Founded in 1920 by Ernest Bloch, it enrolls 325 students in the conservatory and approximately 1,500 students in the preparatory and continuing educatio ...

and served on the faculty of the

Juilliard School of Music The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...

in New York and Hartt School in Hartford. He also taught at the John Mack Oboe Camp, a yearly summer event established by Mack's student and former principal oboe of the

New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic, officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., globally known as New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO) or New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, is a symphony orchestra based in New York City. It is ...

, Joseph Robinson, in Little Switzerland,

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Ellen Taaffe Zwilich ( ; born April 30, 1939) is an American composer, the first female composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Her early works are marked by atonal exploration, but by the late 1980s, she had shifted to a postmodernist, ne ...

Oboe Concerto A number of concertos (as well as non-concerto works) have been written for the oboe, both as a solo instrument as well as in conjunction with other solo instrument(s), and accompanied by string orchestra, chamber orchestra, full orchestra, conce ...

was commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra to honor his 25th anniversary with the orchestra and he performed the world premiere. John Mack died in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

brain cancer A brain tumor occurs when abnormal cells form within the brain. There are two main types of tumors: malignant tumors and benign (non-cancerous) tumors. These can be further classified as primary tumors, which start within the brain, and secondar ...

at the age of 78.

The John Mack Oboe Camp

Mack began th
John Mack Oboe Camp (JMOC)
in 1976 to give more people access to excellent oboe teaching and mentoring; it is held each year in early summer at Wildacres in

Little Switzerland, North Carolina Little Switzerland is an unincorporated community in McDowell and Mitchell counties of North Carolina, United States. It is located along North Carolina Highway 226A (NC 226A) off the Blue Ridge Parkway, directly north of Marion and south o ...

, on the

Blue Ridge Parkway The Blue Ridge Parkway is a National Parkway and All-American Road in the United States, noted for its scenic beauty. The parkway, which is America's longest linear park, runs for through 29 Virginia and North Carolina counties, linking Shenand ...

. The teaching legacy that Mack inspired and instilled is a summer tradition at Wildacres Retreat. A long-standing institution for many oboists, the camp has seen the "who's who" of oboists pass through its doors since 1976.

External source

*Liner notes. Mack, John; Podis, Eunice. ''John Mack, Oboe'' Crystal, 1990.

External links

Cleveland Institute of Music

Listening

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20061001184512/http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/performer.pl?perf=374 Art of the States: John Mackperforming ''Deux rapsodies'' (1901) by

Charles Martin Loeffler Charles Martin Tornov Loeffler (January 30, 1861 – May 19, 1935) was a German-born American violinist and composer. Family background Charles Martin Loeffler was born Martin Karl Löffler on January 30, 1861, in Schöneberg near Berlin to par ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mack, John 1927 births 2006 deaths Curtis Institute of Music alumni Deaths from brain cancer in the United States University of Hartford Hartt School faculty Louisiana State University faculty American classical oboists Male oboists Cleveland Institute of Music faculty Juilliard School alumni Juilliard School faculty Musicians from Cleveland Musicians from Somerville, New Jersey Deaths from cancer in Ohio 20th-century American musicians 20th-century classical musicians Classical musicians from Ohio 20th-century American male musicians