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Louis Stout was a highly-regarded
orchestral player (he never lost an
audition), a revered teacher with scores
of successful students, and a renowned
collector of brass instruments. He had
inexhaustible energy and curiosity,
learned solfège early, memorized all the
horn excerpts, and was always willing to
share his expertise and stories. His
teachers were Elaine Kessler, Marvin
Howe, Mason Jones, and Robert Schultz.
Louis was born in 1924 in
Hallisport NY,
a village of 75 people with a two-room
schoolhouse. There he studied piano with
a fine teacher, learned solfège, and
developed a love for literature and the
arts that led to his vast collection of
books, music, recordings, and
instruments. He learned to play the
trumpet, trombone, violin, clarinet, and
guitar in high school, taking up the
horn as a high school sophomore.
By the age of ten, Louis was
listening to the Chicago Symphony on the
radio. He vowed that he would one day
play in the orchestra, a vow that he was
able to fulfill. During high school, a
friend died and the friend's mother
asked Louis to play for her son. Many
times over the years, Louis would face
difficult solo passages with a sense of
perspective that made the passages less
important than other elements of life.
Louis graduated from high school at
age 15 and spent most of the following
year playing horn solos with a pianist
friend. Then he enrolled at Ithaca (NY)
College, where his horn teacher made a
major change in his embouchure, which he
later said was the best thing for his
career even though it was difficult at
the time. It was also at college that
his teacher insisted he learn the B-flat
side of the horn, and he became
primarily a player of the B-flat horn.
During his junior year, Louis borrowed
money to buy his first "professional"
horn, a 45-year-old Schmidt that he
later said was the best horn he ever
owned, and played an audition for first
horn in the New Orleans Symphony. He had
won the audition and signed the contract
when it was discovered that he was not a
union member; however, the manager
wanted Louis enough to arrange the
necessary membership.
In
New Orleans,
Louis learned to fly an airplane and
found his wife, flutist Glennis Metz.
The orchestra season was only 20 weeks,
so Louis toured with the North Carolina
Symphony and played with the Virginia
Symphony for additional income. After
two years, he went to
New York City and joined the
orchestra at
Radio City
Music Hall. In 1950, when a
new conductor took over and brought his
own players, Louis went back to
Ithaca
College to finish his
bachelor's degree. During his senior
year, he taught all the horn students
plus other brass students and became a
flute major (since he couldn't teach
himself), playing his wife's flute.
Ithaca
College wanted Louis to continue teaching, but he need
more income to support his family and
took a job with Kansas City. After four
years, with a growing family, Louis was
looking for an orchestra with a longer
season. He auditioned for Chicago and got a contract as associate
principal for a 36-week season and a
salary of $100 more per week. He asked
to take lessons from Philip Farkas, the
first horn and his idol. He was refused
but felt that he got his lessons by
sitting next to his "teacher" in the
orchestra.
Louis played in
Chicago for five years
(1955-1960) under Reiner, then applied
for a position at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. At the audition, he played from
memory for two hours and was accepted in
spite of not having a master's degree.
He taught at Michigan for 28 years, and was known as a
demanding teacher, with a thorough and
tough regimen, combined with fatherly
concern. Even after retirement, he
taught privately.
During his Chicago and Michigan
years, Louis acquired an amazing
collection of instruments, with which he
toured the US and Europe in a
lecture/demonstration called "The Horn:
from the Forest to the Concert Hall."
The collection is one of the largest
private collections in the world and is
now in the Franz Streitweiser's Trumpet
and Horn Museum at Schloss Kremsegg in
Linz, Austria. Louis's interest in
historical horns led to his pioneering
use of natural, single B-flat, and
descant horns for early music
performance.
Louis served on the Fulbright
committee, and he and Glennis taught in
Taiwan for two years on a Fulbright
grant after his retirement. Louis
participated in many IHS symposiums,
often surrounded by adoring students. He
was given the Punto award in 1991 and
was elected an Honorary Member in 2005.
A tribute to Louis appears in the
October 1989 issue of
The Horn Call
and a remembrance in the February 2006
issue.
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