Adolph Herseth

Adolph Sylvester "Bud" Herseth (July 25, 1921 – April 13, 2013) was principal trumpet in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1948 until 2001, and served as principal trumpet emeritus from 2001 until his retirement in 2004.

Herseth was born in Lake Park, Minnesota. His father was the band director at Bertha High School, Bertha MN that Herseth attended, where Herseth got his first trumpet. He then went on to learn from James Greco during the summer of 1937 at the first high school state band camp that Gerald Prescott held at the University of Minnesota. Prescott had heard him play in a regional competition and invited him to play solo cornet in his summer band. Herseth graduated from Luther College in Iowa with a degree in mathematics prior to serving as a musician with the U.S. Navy during World War II. After the war, Herseth studied with Boston Symphony Orchestra trumpeters Marcel LaFosse (second trumpet) and Georges Mager (principal trumpet) at the New England Conservatory of Music.

In a book by Louis Davidson, Herseth lists a few of the players he admired and whose playing most influenced his. They include Louis Davidson, Harry Glantz, and Maurice Andre. Herseth also admired the Swedish tenor Jussi Björling and Frank Sinatra.

His ancestors came from Norway, so in 1977 he visited Norway to see the places where his relatives lived in the municipality of Stange in Hedmark County.

Herseth was widely regarded as one of the greatest orchestral trumpeters of his generation.

As the principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony for 53 years, Herseth performed under Bruno Walter, George Szell, Eugene Ormandy, Leonard Bernstein, James Levine, Claudio Abbado, and many other prominent orchestral conductors. His tenure in the orchestra spanned the time of 6 different CSO music directors - Artur Rodziński (1947-1948), Rafael Kubelik (1950-1953), Fritz Reiner (1953-1962), Jean Martinon (1963-1968), Sir Georg Solti (1969-1991), and Daniel Barenboim (1991-2006).

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