wiseone2

John was one of my musical heroes. I met John in 1964 at the Marlboro Festival. John was a product of the Philadelphia woodwind school, which had a great influence on woodwind AND brass playing in America.
John was a character. A big cigar was never far from John's hands.
On the Music from Marlboro tour in 1965, we had a chance to play for his teacher, Marcel Tabuteau. He, Tabuteau, bristled when he saw a trumpet in the ensemble, but he listened to his prize student with pride. After we played, Tabuteau approached me and said, "Young man, you make the trumpet almost a musical instrument." I treasure that meeting.
R.I.P.
http://www.cleveland.com/entertainme...530.xml&coll=2

Wilmer

Derek Reaban

Wilmer,

I’m sorry to hear that. While I don’t know that much about John Mack (except for the conversations that we’ve had), I do know that he was responsible for the CD “Marcel Tabuteau’s Lessons". He sent Tabuteau a recorder in 1965 (to France) and encouraged Tabuteau to record a series of lessons to capture many of his great ideas. Eventually these recordings were released in this fantastic CD, and you almost feel like you are getting a personal lesson with Tabuteau himself. What foresight he had to preserve this information from his teacher!

mstrpt

The past few days have been extremely difficult for me with John's passing, viewing on Thursday, and funeral yesterday.

I can't begin to express the enormously positive impact John Mack had on my life. I was honored to spend a great deal of time with John over the past 18 years on stage in the orchestra, teaching together, and on the golf course. His contribution to music through his playing and teaching cannot be overstated. He was a beacon of integrity, generosity, and quality.... When I first got here I was 26 years old, he was 60 and long in his prime as the premiere oboe player in the world. He immediate accepted me as an equal with such support and kindness, always there to offer encouragement and praise. He was a big part in making my transition easy and successful. At CIM we started a woodwind/brass sectional class together. The wealth of insight from John as we went through every imaginable orchestral work the past 17 years doing this was incredible and inspiring. We often continued our discussions about the class or things that we played in the orchestra on the phone later that night.....He loved to talk about music, style, phrasing, every tiny detail. Nothing escaped his keen awareness of everything going on around him and it was always enlightening to discuss anything with him. John had seemingly endless energy for his work and for his students. John was also a terrific golfer. As he got older he wasn't as long off the tee but from 150 on in he was deadly up and down. He loved a good scotch, a fine cigar, and a good laugh. He loved telling stories, especially of his teacher Marcel Tabuteau and George Szell. For me I could never get enough....he was fun to be around and such a wonderful man......

John was a dear wonderful friend and I will miss him tremendously.....

Michael Sachs

wiseone2

My first year at The Marlboro Festival was like living in a dream. Rudolf Serkin, Pablo Casals, Marcel Moyse and a "Who's Who" collection of players.
John Mack was one of the the players that embraced the young trumpet player from Philadelphia. Buddy Wright, Myron Bloom were some of players that year........I don't think orchestras had year-round contracts in 1965.
I played in chamber groups with John, Buddy and sometimes an occasional string player like Michael Rabin I was in heaven! Ormandy came to lunch one afternoon, and was booed
Throughout it all, John was always there for me.
Wilmer