William Vacchiano

Biography

William Vacchiano was born in 1912 in Portland, Maine. His first teacher was Senor Di Nobili, who taught him solfeggio from the very beginning. At the age of about thirteen he studied with Frank Knapp and a succession of good trumpet performers in the local theaters in Portland. Still a young man, he traveled to Boston for lessons with Louis Kloepfel and Walter M. Smith.

In 1930, at the age of eighteen, he went to New York and began study with Max Schlossberg which continued for the next five years. In 1935 he began a 38 year career with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. When Harry Glantz left to go to the NBC Symphony in 1942, Vacchiano became the principal trumpet. In his long career with the Philharmonic, he played under and recorded with many conductors, including Igor Stravinsky, Sir John Barbirolli, Bruno Walter, Andre Kostelanetz, Sir Thomas Beecham, Arthur Rodzinski, Leopold Stokowski, Charles Munch, Dimitri Mitropoulos, George Szell, and Leonard Bernstein.

It has been said that "......William Vacchiano has passed along his craft to enough trumpet players to populate a small city". He began professional teaching in 1935 and has been teaching continuously in New York for over sixty years. He has been on the faculty of The Julliard School and the Manhattan School of Music since 1936. He was also on the faculty of the Mannes College of Music from 1937-1983. In addition, he always found time to teach private students at his home.

He still resides in New York and stays very active in teaching and publishing trumpet method books. Aspiring students continue to come from all around the world to study with him.

From: International Trumpet Guild Lifetime Achievement members