My first teacher was the elementary school band director, a sax player. He was a nice guy, but really gave no guidance. I wanted to learn theory, and he tried to teach me from Walter Piston's book, but while he may have been quite a good musician, he wasn't able to teach theory. I next studied with a theory teacher at a local music school (this was around 6th grade). He thought I should learn piano, and got me started on a few years of bad piano technique. When I considered how theory was taught in college, I realized that he, too, was not able to teach the subject.
In 7th grade, junior high school, I took weekly lessons with the band director at school, who was a very good trumpet player. Although I was playing baritone horn in the school band, I took trumpet lessons with him. He eventually told me I'd never be a good trumpet player, because my lips were just better suited to a larger mouthpiece (have I mentioned that I have big lips? the rest of my face eventually grew in, but when I was young I was all nose and mouth). I started piano lessons around then with a teacher who came to the house once a week. The best thing that ever happened to me was when he decided to take some time off from teacher to concentrate on trying to market his newly-developed transistorized metronome.
I called up a friend whose piano playing I greatly admired, and got his younger sister on the phone. She recommended a man named Joseph Maurer, who to this day is one of the most remarkable musicians I ever met. Joe studied piano at the University of Chicago and later studied privately with Isabelle Vengerova, the great pedagogue at Curtis School of Music. Joe has perfect pitch, an eidetic memory for music, and the ability to analyze a student's technical problems and gauge the solution to the student's particular physical gifts.
I studied with Joe for the rest of high school, in college during summer vacations, and after I got my Steinway in 1988, I studied with him for another seven years.
During college, I took a handful of lessons on euphonium one summer, but I'm afraid I don't recall the man's name. He did teach me how to produce vibrato, but in those years, the euphonium was really secondary to my piano playing.
When I resumed playing euphonium this past year, I did a lot of research until I found a local teacher who actually played the instrument, rather than a trumpet teacher or a tuba teacher. His name is Robert Stattel, and he studied with Brian Bowman. Rob is incredibly patient and gently pushes me to a higher level of performance.
Dean L. Surkin
Mack Brass MACK-EU1150S, BB1 mouthpiece
Bach 36B trombone; Bach 6.5AL and Faxx 7C mouthpieces (pBone on loan to granddaughter)
Steinway 1902 Model A, restored by AC Pianocraft in 1988; Kawai MP8, Yamaha KX-76
See my avatar: Jazz (the black cockapoo; RIP) and Delilah (the cavapoo) keep me company while practicing