 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2009-09-05 23:40
I met Paul briefly at an alumni orchestra event at our high school (Lane Technical in Chicago) where I was attending at the time. It was a big deal to have such a prestigious player in our midst and I was fortunate enough to be playing next to him during renditions of the New World Symphony and Capriccio Italien. It was the very first time I'd played a next to a world class player and will never forget just how beautifully he played........ and just how damn loud he could blow!
.............Paul Aviles
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Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2009-09-07 03:24
Paul,
He never played at my lessons, but as he was performing actively, I got the impression that he was very protective of his chops.
Mr. Schaller could be a very brusque teacher, but he was not unkind. He was very coldly analytical, and it was impossible to disagree with him. There was nothing personally quirky about him in this regard. He held up very high but simple, plainly identifiable standards. Then he asked what you were going to do to try and attain them. This made him able to get you to do things on your own that might not have been possible otherwise. And when you succeeded, his first remark was how hard you worked. I hadn't experienced this level of clearly stated goals and acknowledgment before, and it had a tremendous effect on me.
So far as being able to play loud, he was competing with flutist Albert Tipton, who could be heard over the DSO at any volume level.
A 1987 article in the Detroit Free Press about his retirement, opened a window into what it was like going into his father's line of work. In that regard, the teacher was always there, ready and willing to comment on the pupil's level of preparation. Mr. Schaller was not a "method" guy, and would deflect any talk about what it took him personally to stay in shape. But it was plain that he was always very, very highly prepared.
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Author: Anon
Date: 2009-09-07 22:16
Paul was my teacher for 4 years thru high school. I loved him dearly. He treated me kindly but was brutally honest. He had primarily male students at that time and he treated me like "one of the guys". I always joke that my arm is still bruised from where he punched me. He punched if it was good, he punched if it was bad. I once punched him back and said "hurts, doesn't it?" and then we laughed and laughed.
I remember his lovely wife Pearl and his father (Chicago Symphony) who used to sit on the stairs and listen to my lessons. Paul taught me on the day of his father's funeral. He didn't want to reschedule, he just wanted to keep going.
We lost touch in later years and I'm so sorry to hear of his passing. He was one of my favorites.
Marianne Leitch Breneman
Cincinnati OH
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Author: Diran
Date: 2009-09-07 23:45
Hi,
Paul was my clarinet instructor in college, and was also a very big influence in my life. I'm a band director in Michigan, and am celebrating fifty years playing the clarinet. He also hit my arm and made me play to the best of my ability.
A great person.
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Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2009-09-08 00:05
I forgot about the arm hitting thing. He could knock you over with his finger tips.
He used to have a big, friendly Irish Setter that would want to hang out with whoever came in the door. At my first lesson, it took a minute for me figure out what had just occurred when he told the dog to leave. The dog's name was "Ralph".
Post Edited (2009-09-08 00:17)
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Author: Anon
Date: 2009-09-08 01:44
His "guys" - the older students - were really good and I just wanted to be taught like they were...I often said "give me what they're doing! I can do it too!"
He played poker games with them and one time I said "How come you don't invite ME to play poker?" (I was kidding - sort of) and he said "Young lady, you're 15 and you're a girl!"
When I first got my drivers license, I drove to his house for a lesson and I was so proud. I really wanted to impress him at whatever I was doing. He just really meant a lot to me and I'm sad that I didn't keep in touch these past several years.
I had an address for him in FL but didn't realize they still had a place in Michigan. Every so often I'd google him and hope that I wouldn't see an obituary - when I saw the post title today, I knew.
Marianne
:-(
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Author: rtaylor
Date: 2009-09-08 18:49
I studied with him for fives years after gradute school. He always made me memorize all of the excerpts for orchestra. I still have the bruises for the ones that were not up to snuff... He was a consumate musician who just happened to play the clarinet. I owe him a lot in helping me get my playing in shape. He was patient and demanding. Traits that a lot so supposed "great teachers" of today could stand to emulate.
He told me the story of memorizing the Nielsen concerto because the music director of the DSO at the time was Sixten Erhling from Scandinavia. Erhling approached him to play a concerto with the orchestra. Thinking that he would ask for Scandinavian music, Schaller choose the Nielsen. Keep in mind he had never worked on the Nielsen prior to that. He went in to confirm with Erhling what to play. Erhling completely surprised him and asked that he perform the Mozart Concerto....go figure!
He will be greatly missed.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2009-09-08 19:28
Notice how his students remember him fondly for his honesty, his bluntness, his own strong work ethic and his high expectations for his students. I'm convinced that most of the better students work their hardest for a teacher who challenges them. I smiled over those recollections of Mr. Schaller punching his students. My husband similarly reveres the violin teacher (Mischa Mischakoff) who used to whack him with a fly swatter!
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: bbowman1
Date: 2009-09-09 17:33
I also studied with Paul Schaller and appreciated his honesty and work ethic... When I was in my second year in college, my father passed away and I was grieving and distracted from my studies. At one lesson during this time Paul was listening to me not playing well and he said, "My Boy, you need something to work on". He pulled out the Nielsen. Then he told me that juries were in six weeks so I better "Get the lead out". This got me out of that slump AND I learned the Nielsen!
I have many of the same stories and experiences with Paul as told in earlier posts, but one of the greatest things was that his lessons were never about him. They were always about the student. It wasn't until much later that I realized just how much he influenced my personal and professional life.
I will miss him.
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