Seldom do we have the opportunity to have student’s insight shared in the teaching method of a world class trumpet teacher. When this interview was brought to my attention, I wanted to share it with you.
For those of you who did not have the privilege of visiting with Mr. Cichowicz, I have included a small amount of background about this wonderful teacher. Although I had the occasion to spend some time with this him, I did not study with him. Many of my friends did and the comments given in this interview reflect the same respect that all of his students had for him.
Although I do not at this time have a copy of the new book “Long Tone Studies” I have used his “Flow Studies Book for many years and highly recommend it to every brass player. The material within its pages is very basic with one purpose in mind; Air in, throat open, let the air out. Several of the exercises where hand written and I can only assume that it is in his own hand. Most of the material is not original but are copies of other etudes with additional notes made by the author.
Reprinted from the Chicago Tribune, December 14, 2006
Vincent Cichowicz, a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s trumpet section from 1952 until 1974 and professor emeritus of trumpet at Northwestern University, died Monday evening following a long illness at his home in Fontana, Wisconsin. He was 79.
A lifetime figure on the music scene in Chicago, Cichowicz had served on the faculty at Northwestern since 1959 and as professor of trumpet from 1974 until his retirement in 1998. He began his musical career at the age of seventeen as a member of the Houston Symphony Orchestra and, after military service in the Fifth Army Band, returned to Chicago to attend Roosevelt University. He was a member of the Civic Orchestra from 1947 until 1950 and in 1952 became a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where he remained for twenty-three years under music directors Rafael Kubelík, Fritz Reiner, Jean Martinon, and Sir Georg Solti. During this period he also was a member of the Chicago Symphony Brass Quintet and was a participant in the Grammy Award-winning recording of The Antiphonal Music of Gabrieli.
He was appointed music director of the Millar Brass Ensemble in 1995; their collaboration can be heard on the Delos recording Brass Surround. In 1997 Cichowicz received a special achievement award from the European Chapter of the International Trumpet Guild and was presented with the Legends in Teaching Award by Northwestern University, and in 1999 he received the International Trumpet Guild Lifetime Achievement Award.
Cichowicz was a faculty member of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada from 1980 until 2002, and the Brass Seminar program at The Domaine Forget in Charlevoix, Quebec, from 1986 until 2004. He conducted numerous workshops and clinics throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan and was regarded as one of North America’s foremost experts in brass pedagogy.
