Obituary: Charles F. Hois / PSO trumpeter for 36 years, nearly all as the principal
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Charles F. Hois carried the demeanor of one who took his trumpet playing lightly, as he did much of life, making others laugh with his barbs.
But seriously, the man could play.
You don't spend more than three decades as principal trumpet of one of the nation's foremost symphonies without talent. Those around him during his years with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra knew it, from conductors to colleagues. even if Mr. Hois never --excuse the phrase -- blew his own horn.
Mr. Hois, 79, died of lung cancer Sunday at Family Hospice's Center for Compassionate Care in Mt. Lebanon. He was diagnosed two years ago.
The Mt. Lebanon resident started playing trumpet when he was growing up in Philadelphia at age 8. Mr. Hois set the instrument aside after retiring from the symphony in 1996. He'd blown enough notes by then to satisfy him.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and a Marine veteran, he spent five years with the Cleveland Orchestra before joining Pittsburgh as the first among its four trumpets when arriving for the 1960-61 season.
His wife, Audrey, said he was offered principal trumpet positions at the same time by the orchestras in Minneapolis and New Orleans, but Mr. Hois picked Pittsburgh because of its prestige under music director William Steinberg.
Frank Ostrowski of Whitehall, a trumpet player in the symphony at the time, had heard Mr. Hois when both were students at the Tanglewood music camp in Massachusetts in 1948. Plenty of people admired Mr. Hois' playing after he arrived in Pittsburgh, which was no surprise to Mr. Ostrowski.
"When I first heard him play, I decided to practice harder," Mr. Ostrowski said. "I always told people that Charley Hois never improved -- he played that way his whole life."
Those attending symphonies over several decades heard trumpet solos from Mr. Hois during performances of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition," Handel's "Messiah," Mahler's Third Symphony and many other pieces. He seemed to do it effortlessly, but he would practice for hours daily in the basement of his home.
Mr. Ostrowski recalled Mr. Hois playing a solo for a symphony recording of Stravinsky's "Petrouchka" that Mr. Steinberg pronounced perfect on the first try. Yet, a representative of the record company insisted on a second take.
First Published February 23, 2010 12:00 am
