Curtis mourns the loss of pioneering oboist, author, teacher, baker, and linguist Laila Storch (’45), who passed away on Friday, December 2, 2022, at age 101, surrounded by her loved ones on Orcas Island, Washington. She was the first female oboist to graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with internationally renowned oboist Marcel Tabuteau. A trailblazing musician, Professor Storch served as principal oboe of the Houston Symphony Orchestra (1948–55) and the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg (1955–57) and played with the National Symphony, Kansas City Philharmonic, Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, and American Wind Ensemble of Vienna.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Professor Storch built an inspiring career as a renowned oboist throughout Europe and the United States. From 1950–53 and 1965–68, she participated in the Casals Festival, one of the Caribbean’s foremost classical music events, celebrated every year in San Juan in honor of classical musician Pablo Casals. 
She was also chosen by Casals to be professor of oboe at his Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico, and in the summer of 1965, joined the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet. In 1968, she came to the University of Washington with the quintet when it was hired as a resident ensemble at the School of Music, and she served as part of the group for 30 years until her retirement on May 31, 1991.
Professor Storch was the recipient of a Fulbright research grant (for research on 18th-century oboe concerti) and had written many articles about oboists and oboe history. In 2008, she penned the definitive portrait of her former teacher, Marcel Tabuteau: How Do You Expect to Play the Oboe If You Can’t Peel a Mushroom?, which was published by Indiana University Press. The book combined Tabuteau’s life and philosophies with institutional and cultural history, with the addition of anecdotal humor gathered from her own experience and that of his friends, family, students, and colleagues.
In 2009, when Curtis held its seventy-sixth annual Commencement, Professor Storch was honored with the Curtis Alumni Award, the highest honor the school confers on its alumni. Established in 2000, the award recognizes outstanding and long-term contribution to Curtis and exceptional contribution to the music world.
The Curtis community extends its deepest sympathy and heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, former students, and colleagues of Professor Storch.
Explore the Curtis archives. Read Laila Storch’s notes from her lessons with legendary oboe teacher, Marcel Tabuteau, at our digital collections site HERE.
Photo credit: 1.) Banner image: Laila Storch in 1948 with the Houston Symphony. 2.) Laila Storch in 2020; courtesy of the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival. 3.) Laila Storch playing the oboe; courtesy of marceltabuteau.com. 4.) Professor Storch at home in 2020; courtesy of the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival. 5.) Marcel Tabuteau and oboe students, 1948–49 school year. Marcel Tabuteau, Laurence Thorstenberg ’51, John Mack ’51, Louis Rosenblatt ’51, Laila Storch ’45; Courtesy of the Curtis Archives.
Harpist Claire Thai, Curtis’s L. Daniel Dannenbaum Fellow, is featured prominently throughout the album as she accompanies the violin solos and evokes the wonder of Scheherazade’s imaginative tales. Now a student in Curtis’s master’s program, she talks about her experience recording this beloved symphonic suite:
I had a childhood that was rather immersed in music, so I don’t quite remember what my first musical memory was. But one of my earliest musical memories is actually of my mother practicing the violin. I was mystified by her tuning ritual and all of the strangely intuitive and natural sounds that she was able to make. She would also play recordings of her favorite pieces and occasionally play them into my hand as I was falling asleep. My early musical experiences were rather surface-level; I had a brief affair with the violin when I was three, which ended after my parents realized I was more interested in the keychain around my teacher’s neck than the violin. I also found the concept of practicing quite mind-boggling and didn’t particularly enjoy doing it, which ended my first piano experience.
This is an ever-changing topic, and what I write now may not be what I think in a year, a month, or even a few days. But if I had to answer this now (which I suppose I do), I would pick the Ralph Vaughan Williams concerto, Alyssa Morris’s Four Personalities, and the Bohuslav Martinů concerto. I’ve played Vaughan Williams’s concerto more times than I would like to admit publicly, but the fact remains that it’s a stunning musical landscape based almost entirely on the pentatonic scale. For me, the piece strongly paints the image of a beautiful field of grass on the edge of the forest, and the protagonist (the oboe) dances with Fate before entering the forest, perhaps searching for something. Many elements of nature are encountered, and Vaughan Williams impeccably captures the bucolic joy of our protagonist as they flit about merrily.
The Curtis Institute of Music recently announced the launch of 
“Recording Scheherazade with Maestro Vänskä and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra was a truly unique and special experience. It was a joy to collaborate with everyone in the orchestra to record such a great piece. I remember how exciting it was to see Gould Hall transformed into a studio-like setting, filled with many cameras, lights, and other equipment. This was my first experience taping a piece in a setting like this, and I think it was for many of my colleagues as well. This will definitely live in my memory for many years to come!
“If I had to pick a favorite of all the violin solos throughout the piece, I would probably choose the extended solo found in the third movement. The third movement is the most warm and loving of all the movements, and in this particular cadenza for the violin, Rimsky-Korsakov provides perhaps the most opportunity for the utmost expression and passion. My favorite phrase of the whole piece comes immediately following the broken chords in ricochet, where the solo violin finally has a chance to sing freely and indulge in the beautiful theme of the third movement.