| Hi Peter,
Yes, the same Sol Caston.
As you probably know, Sol Caston played 2nd trumpet in the Philadelphia Phil with the legendary Ernest Williams who also was his teacher. He joined the orchestra at the tender age of 16 starting tin the 1918-1919 season with the recommendation of Williams.
When Williams left the Philedelphia Orchestra ( 1923 , the orchestra was under the direction of Leopold Stokowski at the time) to pursue teaching/solo career eventually started his won school of music plus teaching at ithica conservatory of music.
The Philadelphia Orchestra boasts an extraordinary record of media firsts. It was the first symphonic orchestra to make electrical recordings (in 1925), the first to perform its own commercially sponsored radio broadcast (in 1929, on NBC), the first to perform on the soundtrack of a feature film (Paramount's The Big Broadcast of 1937), the first to appear on a national television broadcast (in 1948, on CBS ), during the golden age of Radio, TV and the Movies.
In other firsts, the Orchestra made film history in 1939 when it recorded the soundtrack for Walt Disney's 1940 Fantasia, the landmark animated feature film that did much to popularize symphonic music in the USA.
Because the Philadelphia Phil was one of the first orchestras to start performing for Radio, TV and the Movies , under the direction of Eugene Normandy, Sol , for a period left the orchestra and played on the West Coast especially during the Orchestra’s long off-season. He shortly returned full time to the orchestra when the orchestra’s season went more year round.
You mentioned, Rick Baptist,
Rick Baptist is definitely the premier studio trumpet player in Los Angeles today. He has more credits to his name that time permits to list, but this is something most trumpet player do not know about Rick. He has extensive classical background playing utility trumpet with the San Francisco Orchestra starting at the age of 14 in the early 60’s , before eventually moving to Las Vegas and then Los Angeles.
Larry |