Adolph Sylvester "Bud" Herseth (July 25, 1921 – April 13, 2013) was principal

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

in the

Chicago Symphony Orchestra The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) was founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891. The ensemble makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival. The music director is Riccardo Muti, who began his tenu ...

from 1948 until 2001, and served as principal trumpet emeritus from 2001 until his retirement in 2004.

Life and career

Herseth was born in

Lake Park, Minnesota Lake Park is a city in Becker County, Minnesota, Becker County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 728 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. History The area upon where Lake Park was founded, started to be settled in 1841 by ...

. His father was the band director at Bertha High School, Bertha MN that Herseth attended, where Herseth got his first trumpet. He then went on to learn from James Greco during the summer of 1937 at the first high school state band camp that Gerald Prescott held at the University of Minnesota. Prescott had heard him play in a regional competition and invited him to play solo cornet in his summer band. Herseth graduated from Luther College in Iowa with a degree in mathematics prior to serving as a musician with the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. After the war, Herseth studied with Boston Symphony Orchestra trumpeters Marcel LaFosse (second trumpet) and Georges Mager (principal trumpet) at the

New England Conservatory of Music The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest independent music conservatory in the United States and among the most prestigious in the world. The conservatory is located on H ...

. In a book by Louis Davidson, Herseth lists a few of the players he admired and whose playing most influenced his. They include Louis Davidson, Harry Glantz, and

Maurice André Maurice André (21 May 1933 – 25 February 2012) was a French trumpeter, active in the classical music field. He was professor of trumpet at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris where he introduced the teaching of the picc ...

. Herseth also admired the Swedish tenor

Jussi Björling Johan Jonatan "Jussi" Björling ( , ; 5 February 19119 September 1960) was a Swedish tenor. One of the leading operatic singers of the 20th century, Björling appeared for many years at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and less frequentl ...

and Frank Sinatra. His ancestors came from Norway. In 1977 he visited

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

to see the places where his relatives lived in the municipality of

Ringsaker is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Hedemarken. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Brumunddal. Other settlements in Ringsaker include the town of Moelv and the ...

Hedmark Hedmark () was a county in Norway before 1 January 2020, bordering Trøndelag to the north, Oppland to the west, Akershus to the south, and Sweden to the east. The county administration is in Hamar. Hedmark and Oppland counties were merged int ...

County. Herseth was widely regarded as one of the greatest

orchestral An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ...

trumpeters of his generation.Tunnell, Michael: ''Adolph Herseth: In a Class by Himself'' (International Trumpet Guild Journal, February 1998) As the principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony for 53 years, Herseth performed under

Bruno Walter Bruno Walter (born Bruno Schlesinger, September 15, 1876February 17, 1962) was a German-born conductor, pianist and composer. Born in Berlin, he escaped Nazi Germany in 1933, was naturalised as a French citizen in 1938, and settled in the U ...

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 ...

Eugene Ormandy Eugene Ormandy (born Jenő Blau; November 18, 1899 – March 12, 1985) was a Hungarian-born American conductor and violinist, best known for his association with the Philadelphia Orchestra, as its music director. His 44-year association with ...

, Leonard Bernstein,

James Levine James Lawrence Levine (; June 23, 1943 – March 9, 2021) was an American conductor and pianist. He was music director of the Metropolitan Opera from 1976 to 2016. He was terminated from all his positions and affiliations with the Met on March 1 ...

Claudio Abbado Claudio Abbado (; 26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014) was an Italian conductor who was one of the leading conductors of his generation. He served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony ...

, and many other prominent orchestral conductors. His tenure in the orchestra spanned the time of 6 different CSO music directors -

Artur Rodziński Artur Rodziński (2 January 1892 – 27 November 1958) was a Polish-American conductor of orchestral music and opera. He began his career after World War I in Poland, where he was discovered by Leopold Stokowski, who invited him to be his ass ...

(1947-1948),

Rafael Kubelik Rafael may refer to: * Rafael (given name) or Raphael, a name of Hebrew origin * Rafael, California * Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Israeli manufacturer of weapons and military technology * Hurricane Rafael, a 2012 hurricane Fiction * ''R ...

(1950-1953),

Fritz Reiner Frederick Martin "Fritz" Reiner (December 19, 1888 – November 15, 1963) was a prominent conductor of opera and symphonic music in the twentieth century. Hungarian born and trained, he emigrated to the United States in 1922, where he rose to ...

(1953-1962),

Jean Martinon Jean Francisque-Étienne Martinon (usually known simply as Jean Martinon (); 10 January 19101 March 1976) was a French conductor and composer. Biography Martinon was born in Lyon, where he began his education, going on to the Conservatoire ...

(1963-1968), Sir Georg Solti (1969-1991), and Daniel Barenboim (1991-2006). Herseth's tenure as principal trumpet spanned the Reiner years, during which the orchestra rose to prominence, due in part to the powerful and precise sound of its brass section. As explained by the Telegraph in London on September 18, 2009, "The orchestra's rise to fame began with the great Fritz Reiner in the Fifties, but it was during the 22-year reign of the fierce Hungarian Georg Solti that the orchestra became the brawny yet subtle precision instrument that it is today, famed especially for its noble and stupendously powerful brass sound." A Smithsonian profile of Herseth, published September 1, 1994, offered this description: "The Chicago has long been recognized as one of the world's great orchestras, and Adolph Sylvester Herseth has had a major role in the evolution of its distinctive sound." As described in the

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago ...

, July 22, 2001, "For decades Herseth's rich, golden tone and powerful yet expressive playing were a cornerstone of the fabled 'Chicago Sound.'" That brass sound drew worldwide attention to the CSO, and propelled the great American orchestra's reputation around the globe." According to an entry on the Chicago History Museum's online history of the city, the CSO's "unmistakable sound and high standard of performance helped define the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as a world class institution. It also made Chicago an international center for the study of brass instrument performance." Regular concert-goers knew him not only by his golden sound, but also by sight; as long-time

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

critic John von Rhein wrote in his farewell piece, "He was the man whose face would turn radish-red when he was scaling the trumpet stratosphere or tossing off a rapid scale passage. Where he found the huge volume of air needed to make a notoriously recalcitrant brass instrument soar like that, Herseth wasn't saying. That was part of the Bud Mystique." Herseth retired in 2001. The position he occupied is now named after him - The Adolph Herseth Principal Trumpet Chair. He died at his home in Oak Park, Illinois, Oak Park on April 13, 2013, at the age of 91.

References

External links

Trumpet Profiles by Louis DavidsonAdolph "Bud" Herseth obituary on ''From the Archives''Adolph "Bud" Herseth's golden practise advice
{{DEFAULTSORT:Herseth, Adolph 1921 births 2013 deaths American trumpeters American male trumpeters Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music American people of Norwegian descent Luther College (Iowa) alumni United States Navy officers United States Navy personnel of World War II People from Lake Park, Minnesota Military personnel from Iowa Military personnel from Minnesota