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Frank Gorell (b. Pittsburgh, PA, 23 June, 1913; d. Boca Raton FL, 13 June, 2006) was a French hornist, industrialist, benefactor, and advocate.(of what?)

As a patron, Gorell established the Miami String Quartet. The musical recital hall of Indiana University of Pennsylvania is named in his honor.

Early life

One of 9 children of Itzhak and Sarah, emigres from Odessa, Gorell was a child prodigy, being employed from age 7 as the boy soprano soloist at B’nai Israel Synagogue in Pittsburgh under Chasim Julius Bloom.

After graduating from Peabody High School, Gorell attended the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia from 1930 through 1934 as a scholarship student under the tutelage of theFrench hornist, [[ Gorell’s preparation for an orchestral career included his studies as a member of the woodwind class at Curtis coached by the oboist and maitre, Marcel Tabuteau, whom he considered a major influence.

Career

Music

Upon graduation in 1934, Gorell was a member of the Navy Band in Washington, D.C.. for four years before accepting a position with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at the invitation of Fritz Reiner in 1938. During his four-year tenure with that orchestra, Gorell commuted to New York City where he was a freelance French hornist.

On the staff at both NBC and CBS radio, he participated in hundreds of broadcasts with the leading conductors and soloists of the day, includingArturo Toscanini; Leopold Stokowski, Bruno Walter, Igor Stravinsky, Howard BarlowJosef Hoffmann, Sergei Rachmaninoff,Arthur Rubenstein Jascha Heifetz, Mischa Elman,Isaac stern, Gregor Piatigorsky, Lauritz Melchior, Kirsten Flagstad, Lily Pons, among others. His varied musical career included concerts he performed at Carnegie Hall l, theMetropolitan Museum of Art,Radio City Music Hall, as well as Broadway, where he was the solo French hornist for the premiere run of Annie Get Your Gun, starring Ethel Merman. Sitting in the front row at one of the evening performances, General (future-president) Dwight David Eisenhower either did not notice or chose to overlook the uniformed French hornist in the pit orchestra, who played by day in the Service Forces Orchestra as a private in the US Army from 1943 through 1945.

With that organization, also made up of some of the era’s most accomplished musicians, Gorell broadcast and recorded a variety of repertoire required to meet the domestic and oversees needs of the nation’s armed forces. Declining an invitation by Leonard Bernstein to join the American Symphony Orchestra in New York City, Gorell held the position of solo French horn in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for the 1948–1949 season, where his performances of some of the richest repertoire ever composed for the French horn, the complete symphonic works of Johannes Brahms, under the baton of Howard Barlow were unfortunately not preserved in recording. After briefly exploring the opportunity of becoming "The Tommy Dorsey of the French Horn” by combining his instrumental and singing talents as a soloist with the popular orchestra conducted by Paul Whiteman, Gorell left his professional career in music to become an industrialist.

Manufacturing

In 1947, Gorell founded Season All Windows, which manufactured storm windows and doors. He took Season All Windows public on the American Stock Exchange in 1962.

Cultural beneficiary

For over five decades, Gorell maintained a high profile as a generous benefactor and advocate for classical music.

While continuing to play his beloved French horn avocationaly, Gorell influenced the cultural life of America as a member of the board of directors of several important institutions, including the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, where he was the first former member to be invited to do so, the Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Indiana, Pennsylvania, where the music recital hall is named in his honor, and at theCurtis Institute of Music, where he continued into his 90s to serve as an active member of the Board of Overseers as well as Emeritus member of the Board of Directors; he was also named emeritus member of theBoard of directors of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida where he and his wife Mary Ethel Cook Gorell, maintained a winter residence.

Gorell used his patronage to establish several noted chamber music ensembles, including the Miami String Quartet and the Gorell Trio; he endowed a recital series at Carnegie Mellon University, at the Kravis Center in Palm Beach, and at IUP, and underwrote an annual performance-masterclass residency held by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on the campus of IUP.

In 1980 Gorell was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Letters by IUP and in 2000 he was one of the first recipients of the Curtis Institute's Distinguished Alumni Award.