Grover Schiltz: Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame ~ Celebrating Lives of Achievement.

When Grover Schiltz takes his familiar place on the stage of Symphony Center in Chicago, the English horn chair of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) which he has occupied since 1964, he is a man at the top of the world. This is, with little argument, the most magnificent musical entity on the planet. But his journey to that chair began with something small. His hands, to be exact.

Born in Aurora, Illinois, Grover began school at Beaupre Elementary but, from the age of five, lived on West Street and attended Center School, the same street and school associated with his fellow Hall of Fame inductee Maud Powell (1867-1920). He and his sister Joanne grew up in a bustling, three-generation household. Summertime brought three whole months of bliss at their grandparents' cottage on the banks of the Fox River between Yorkville and Oswego, "far from the softening influences of running water and indoor plumbing,” as Grover remembered it now. "We loved it, with boating, swimming and fishing filling our days."

His introduction to music came from a general music class taught by Elizabeth O'Donnell and then from the boy choir at Trinity Episcopal Church, where he performed as a boy soprano soloist.

His introduction to band music came from members of the East High Band, who visited Center School to play their instruments and recruit for the band program. They inspired little Grover to try the clarinet. He was such a small child, however, that his hands could not cover the keys and the grade school band director, Jim Trotto, diverted him to the oboe, which has a smaller hand position. It was to be a temporary arrangement, but Mr. Trotto also had some savvy advice. Oboists were always in short supply, he told Grover, so bands and orchestras were eager for oboe players. Furthermore, double reed players generally had their pick of college scholarships. The boy with the small hands decided to stay with the oboe.

By high school Grover had developed a serious interest in music. His junior and senior years he traveled weekly into Chicago to study with Robert Mayer, the Chicago Symphony English horn player, taking the train from the terminal on Broadway. He got an after-school job at the Aurora Public Library to pay for the lessons, and when he progressed to the point of needing a better oboe than the school system could provide, worked at the Kroger grocery store on New York Street and set pins at the Elks Club bowling alley to earn enough money to buy his own instrument.

True to Dr. Trotto's prediction, Grover was the only oboist in District 131. Still a teenager, he played with the Aurora Civic Orchestra, directed by Dr. Frederick Toenniges. He was elevated from second to first oboe when first oboist Bill Vruels went into the Air Force during the Second World War. "Everyone else, I guess," Grover commented, wryly, "was big enough to play the clarinet."

Grover attended the University of Michigan on scholarship, playing under Dr. William Revelli. His last two summers he was accepted at Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he was coached by symphony members and played in the student orchestra and in chamber groups. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor's degree in woodwinds.

A job offer for second oboe with the Indianapolis Symphony had to be shelved when Grover was drafted into the U. S. Army during the Korean conflict and played with the 6th Armored Division Band, based at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. That tour of duty placed him for a time at the U.S. Naval School of Music in Anacostia, Maryland, from which he commuted to Philadelphia to study with the famous oboist Marcel Tabuteau of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

In 1954 he returned to Illinois and settled in Chicago, joining the Civic Orchestra, the training orchestra of the Chicago Symphony. By 1955 he was a member of the Grant Park Symphony and the Lyric Opera Orchestra, and a year later traveled the United States with the Boston Pops Tour Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler.

About that time he encountered a former Michigan classmate, Beverly Spera, who had been playing with the New Orleans Philharmonic but who had come to the Chicago area to pursue a master’s degree at Northwestern University. They were married in 1956 and both joined the Kansas City Philharmonic, Beverly as a string bass player and Grover as principal oboist.

In 1959 they returned to Chicago when Fritz Reiner tapped Grover, only 27 years old, for assistant principal oboe with the Chicago Symphony. Five years later, music director Jean Martinon awarded Grover the English horn chair, and he has remained with the orchestra ever since. His career with the CSO has meant not only the opportunity to perform with the greatest artists of the world for more than four decades, but travel to the four corners of the earth. The orchestra tours frequently to Europe, Russia, Japan, Australia, and South America as well as Hong Kong, Alaska and other points. They have triumphed at the festivals of Edinborough, Salzburg, Vienna, Lucerne and the London Proms as well as others. Grover and Beverly enjoy the travel, using their free time to sightsee and sample the cuisines of the world.

Life in the Schiltz household revolves around music. In addition to the Chicago Symphony and teaching (Grover has taught at Northwestern and is currently on the adjunct faculties of the University of Illinois-Chicago and Roosevelt University) Beverly and Grover both have an interest in Early Music, playing with a number of ensembles and chamber music groups on original instruments.

They also love dogs. For many years they bred and showed both Dachshunds and Welsh Corgis, finishing 24 champions, although today their roost is ruled by "a very mature" tabby cat named The Inspector. Gourmet cooking is another passion, and their ever-expanding cookbook collection, according to Grover, is close to crowding out everyone and everything else in their Lake Forest home.

The musical mastery of Grover Schiltz may be heard on countless Chicago Symphony Orchestra recordings, as well as “Soloists of the Orchestra II, Volume 15” of From The Archives issued by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 2001 and available online at www.cso.org.