Curtis hires Cleveland dropout
OrchestrasWhen the Cleveland Orchestra’s principal trumpet Michael Sachs resigned last month as head of the brass division at the city’s music college, it was a significant marker of the progressive disintegration of the Cleveland Institute of Music.
CIM chiefs shrugged it off. One suit even suggested Sachs was past it.
Happily, the Curtis Institute of Music was quick to take advantage. Curtis ‘is proud to announce that celebrated musician and distinguished teacher Michael Sachs will join Curtis’s trumpet faculty beginning in fall 2024, as the school celebrates its centennial year,’ it flashed last night. ‘We are thrilled to welcome Michael Sachs to the Curtis faculty,’ says Roberto Díaz, president and CEO. ‘Our students will benefit greatly from his extraordinary experience as an outstanding musician, advocate for expanding the repertoire, and a dedicated teacher.’
Sachs will continue playing in the Cleveland Orchestra.
Pretty much the figurative middle finger at CIM and their initiative to become the Curtis of the Midwest. Love it, can’t beat this kind of egg on the face for CIM….
Congratulations to Curtis Insitute for adding the great Michael Sacks to it’s faculty. He is a great performer and musician. What a sad state of affairs at the Cleveland Institute of Music, to lose this valuable asset.
A Freudian slip perhaps that Sachs is still paying in the C.O.?
Good for him! But, so sad for the students at Cleveland. I hope he can take some/all of them with him.
The Phialdelphia Orchestra principal trumpet chair is available as David Bilger has retired…………………?????
David Bilger left to teach at Northwestern.
Philadelphia has been using subs when needed. Would love to see Michael even fill in when available. Philly’s new contract specify subs get the same pay as regular players. The new contract also promises up to 15 new hires to build the band back to 100+.
Thanks Hal. Well I for one would love Michael Sachs to be principal in Philly, he has a bit of personality which I prefer to the “just sit and play” approach of some players. Actually I wish Kaderabek was still there, I really enjoyed his playing, though Mr Muti didn’t……………too much vibrato….
I really think it’s wonderful for Curtis and it’s trumpet class. I just wonder how it will work, though. Doesn’t the school only admit enough students to form a full orchestra? How many trumpet students are there? Isn’t the principal trumpet of the Philadelphia Orchestra also the trumpet professor at Curtis? Or is there really a need, and is there a budget to fly in regularly another master for a class of four or five students.
Still, what a fantastic opportunity for these young trumpeters!
Keep on digging, Hogle. Before long CIM faculty will consist of the board president’s son, two retired investment bankers who “dig music a lot”, and a cardboard cutout of Ronald Reagan.
But hey, keep “shooting for the moon”, that’ll turn out just as well as it did for meme stocks.
AND the Philadelphia principal chair sits vacant, as word spreads that John Parker was not offered the job following an extensive trial. These shifts of the major players are hard for institutions to manage. Hope Philadelphia Orchestra can deem someone worthy. Curtis has done well here- congratulations to Michael Sachs!