Robert Bloom

{{Infobox musical artist | name = Robert Bloom | image = | image_size = | landscape =  | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | alias = | birth_date = {{birth date|1908|05|03}} | birth_place = Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania | origin = | death_date = {{death date and age|1994|02|13|1908|05|03}} | death_place = Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio | genre = Classical | occupation = Oboist, composer, arranger, teacher | instrument = Oboe | years_active =  | label = | associated_acts = }} '''Robert Bloom''' (May 3, 1908{{snd}}February 13, 1994) was an oboist with an orchestral and solo career, a composer and arranger contributing to the oboe repertory, and a teacher of several successful oboists.<ref name="nyt94" /> Bloom is considered seminal in the development of an American school of oboe playing.<ref name="Webster1988" />

At the Curtis Institute of Music Bloom was a pupil of Marcel Tabuteau for three years.<ref name="Webster1988" /> In the 1930s he played English horn in the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski and first oboe in the Rochester Philharmonic under José Iturbi.<ref name="Webster1988" /> He was the principal oboe in Arturo Toscanini's NBC Symphony Orchestra from 1937 to 1943.<ref>Sachs, Harvey. [https://books.google.com/books?id=hGlynQgCEcYC&pg=PA118-IA3 "Robert Bloom", p. 121 ff.] in ''Arturo Toscanini: From 1915 to 1946''. E.D.T., 1987 {{ISBN|9788870630565}}</ref> Bloom plays on recordings by the Columbia Symphony and the RCA Symphony.<ref name="Webster1988" />

In 1946 Bloom was one of the founding members of the Bach Aria Group, with which he played until 1980.<ref name="nyt94" /><ref name="Webster1988" /> Recordings by the Bach Aria Group featuring Bloom started appearing from the late 1940s.<ref>[http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Performers/BachAriaGroup.htm Bach Aria Group: Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works] at [http://www.bach-cantatas.com Bach Cantatas Website.]</ref> Bloom transcribed and elaborated 18th-century masterworks for the oboe.<ref name="Ryon2014A" /> His own compositions include a ''Sonatina'' for oboe and piano.<ref name="nyt94" />

Bloom was a professor at Yale and Juilliard.<ref name="nyt94" /> His pupils include William Bennett,<ref>[http://www.sfsymphony.org/bennetttribute "In Tribute to William Bennett"] at San Francisco Symphony website. 2013.</ref> Bill Douglas,<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1454&dat=19771022&id=qB1OAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QhMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6994,4452305 "Concert program announced", p. 2-B] in Wilmington Star-News. October 23, 1977.</ref> Tim Hurtz,<ref>[http://music.psu.edu/performance/tim-hurtz-oboe-0 "Tim Hurtz, oboe"] at Penn State University website. 2015.</ref> Richard Killmer,<ref>[https://www.esm.rochester.edu/faculty/killmer_richard/ "Richard Killmer, oboe"] at Eastman School of Music website. 2019.</ref> Bert Lucarelli,<ref name="GroveOnline" /> Ray Still,<ref name="GroveOnline" /><ref>[https://csoarchives.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/remembering-ray-still/ "Remembering Ray Still"] at Chicago Symphony Orchestra website</ref> Allan Vogel,<ref name="GroveOnline" /> and Richard Woodhams,<ref name="Webster1988" /> In the spring of 1988, friends, colleagues, and former pupils gathered in Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall in New York for an 80th-birthday tribute.<ref name="Webster1988" />

A few years after Bloom's death in 1994,<ref name=ref19 /> his widow, Sara Lambert Bloom, published ''The Robert Bloom Collection'', scores and parts to his 21 editions of 18th-century masterworks, 10 transcriptions, and 10 compositions.<ref name="Stolper2001" /> ''The Art of Robert Bloom'', a 7-CD set of live performances of concertos, chamber music, and Bach arias performed by Bloom over his 60-year career was released in 2001 on Boston Records label.<ref name="7CD" />

Bloom's daughter, Kath Bloom is a singer-songwriter and music therapist based in Litchfield, CT.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Danton |first1=Eric R. |title=Folk artist Bloom back after domestic interlude |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2008-09-24-0809220240-story.html |website=chicagotribune.com|date=24 September 2008 }}</ref>

==References== <references>

<ref name="GroveOnline">Burgess, Geoffrey. "Bloom, Robert" in ''Grove Music Online'', edited by Deane Root. ''Oxford Music Online'' (Oxford University Press, updated 30 August 2004), accessed September 5, 2015.</ref> <ref name="nyt94">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/16/obituaries/robert-bloom-is-dead-oboist-and-teacher-85.html|title=Robert Bloom Is Dead; Oboist and Teacher, 85|date=February 16, 1994|work=The New York Times|accessdate=5 September 2015}}</ref> <ref name="Webster1988">Webster, Daniel. [https://web.archive.org/web/20160101122832/http://articles.philly.com/1988-05-14/news/26260878_1_oboe-richard-woodhams-robert-bloom "Taking Note Of A Remarkable Oboist."] in ''The Philadelphia Inquirer''. May 14, 1988. Retrieved 5 September 2015.</ref> <ref name="Ryon2014A">Ryon, Janna Leigh. Abstract of ''[http://hdl.handle.net/1903/15349 The Legacy of Oboist and Master Teacher, Robert Bloom.]'' University of Maryland, 2014.</ref> <ref name="Stolper2001">Stolper, Daniel. [https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/notes/v058/58.1stolper.html "The Robert Bloom Collection: Solo Works and Chamber Music for Oboe"] in [https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/notes/ ''Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association''], Volume 58, Number 1, September 2001. pp. 186-191.</ref> <ref name=ref19>Webster, Daniel. [https://web.archive.org/web/20131111085532/http://articles.philly.com/1994-02-18/news/25858649_1_philadelphia-orchestra-richard-woodhams-principal-oboe "Robert Bloom; Premier Oboist Played With Phila. Orchestra."] in ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', February 18, 1994. Retrieved 5 September 2015.</ref> <ref name="7CD">[http://robertandsaralambertbloom.com/robert-bloom-cds/art-of-robert-bloom/ "The Art of Robert Bloom ~ A series of 7 CDs"] at {{url|robertandsaralambertbloom.com}}</ref>

</references>

==Further reading== * Bloom, Sara Lambert. "A Tribute to Robert Bloom". ''Double Reed'', Volume 11, Number 3 (1988): 11–21. * Bloom, Sara Lambert (editor), with contributions and/or quotations from Julius Baker, Samuel Baron, Robert Bloom, Susan Eischeid, Jerome Hoberman, David McGill, Leopold Stokowski, Robert Stumpf II, Daniel Webster and others. [http://music.yale.edu/2009/09/11/new-biography-of-oboist-robert-bloom/ ''Robert Bloom: The Story of a Working Musician''.] [http://www.rdgwoodwinds.com/robert-bloom-story-working-musician-p-11990.html rdg], 2009. (Addenda and errata: 2012) {{ISBN|9781934866115}} {{OCLC|429118667}} * Burgess, Geoffrey. "Bloom, Robert" in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians''. London: Macmillan Publishers. Second edition, 2001. * Burgess, Geoffrey. "Bloom, Robert" in ''The Grove Dictionary of American Music'', second edition, eight volumes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. {{ISBN|978-0-19-531428-1}}. * Galbraith, Amy M. ''[https://www.proquest.com/docview/894212495 The American School of Oboe Playing: Robert Bloom, John de Lancie, John Mack, and the Influence of Marcel Tabuteau.]'' West Virginia University, 2011. {{ISBN|9781124894478}} * Schwartz, Norman. [https://www.idrs.org/publications/PublicationsIndex/recordlist.php?-skip=3980&-max=25 "The Pavarotti of the Oboe: Robert Bloom"] in ''The Double Reed'', Volume 28 Number 1 (2005). * Woodhams, Richard. "Robert Bloom, Eminent American Oboist." in ''The Instrumentalist'', Volume 44, Number 4 (December 1989): 24–30.

==External links== *{{official website|http://www.robertandsaralambertbloom.com}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bloom, Robert}} Category:American classical oboists Category:American male oboists Category:Cor anglais players Category:Players of the Philadelphia Orchestra Category:Players of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra Category:Composers for oboe Category:20th-century American classical composers Category:American male classical composers Category:American music arrangers Category:1908 births Category:1994 deaths Category:Musicians from Pittsburgh Category:Curtis Institute of Music alumni Category:20th-century American male composers