From Our First Faculty

Upon its founding in 1924, the Curtis Institute of Music quickly wove itself into the fabric of American musical life. As noted in the fiftieth anniversary edition of Overtones, “Prior to the founding of the Institute, the Philadelphia Orchestra drew its musicians from Europe, seldom from America. Now, American orchestras are almost entirely American-trained. … The Institute played a major role in this change.” Naturally, much of this can be attributed to the students who are the heart and soul of Curtis, but equally important are the founding faculty whose brilliant pedagogy and dedication to their students built a formidable training ground for American artists. As Curtis enters its ninety-sixth anniversary season, we celebrate the Institute’s legacy of winds, brass, and percussion. Here we explore the far-reaching impact of three of Curtis’s founding faculty in these areas: flutist William Kincaid, hornist Anton Horner, and percussionist Oscar Schwar.

The aptly surnamed Anton Horner was born in what is now the Czech Republic but moved with his family to Philadelphia as a young boy. Following the death of his father, he returned to Europe to study. Upon graduation, Horner returned to Philadelphia, where one of his first jobs included a stint at the Walnut Street Theatre. The German-born Oscar Schwar spent his early years in St. Petersburg, playing timpani under the direction of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov until Fritz Scheel, the first music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, recruited him to join the new American orchestra.

Of these founding faculty, only William Kincaid was born in the United States. Indeed, many of the inaugural faculty at Curtis hailed from Europe, as was typical in American music institutions in the early decades of the twentieth century. Though born in Minnesota, Kincaid spent most of his childhood in Hawaii. As a boy, he took swimming lessons from five-time Olympic medalist and surfing enthusiast Duke Kahanamoku. Kincaid later credited these lessons with helping to develop his breath control.

The much-remarked-upon relationship between the Curtis Institute of Music and the Philadelphia Orchestra began soon after the school’s founding. As Philip Hart notes in his book Orpheus in the New World, one of the Orchestra’s key elements has been “a tradition of instrumental quality fostered by a symbiotic relationship between the orchestra and the Curtis Institute of Music.” Leopold Stokowski listed Horner and “remarkable timpanist” Schwar among a handful of “first-class performers” in his early days conducting the orchestra. Kincaid, a later arrival, appeared as soloist in an astonishing 215 performances in a tenure spanning four decades. This rich tradition continued with Horner’s, Kincaid’s, and Schwar’s students, many of whom would populate the Philadelphia Orchestra as well as orchestras across the United States. Mr. Horner proudly remarked that when he retired from the orchestra after a forty-year tenure, “All the boys in the horn section were my boys.

“I was privileged to know [Mr. Horner] as a teacher, friend, benefactor, and almost as a second father; for he had more influence on my life than any person other than my parents.” — James Thurmond (French Horn ’35)