Sherman Walt

Sherman Walt was born in Virginia, Minnesota August 22, 1923 of Russian Jewish parents, Benjamin and Pearl Walt. When Sherman Walt was a teen-ager, Dmitri Mitropoulos, then conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony told Benjamin and Pearl "This boy has to play the bassoon."  Walt was admitted to the Curtis Institute in about 1939, and Mitropoulos sent Walt a monthly allowance. At Curtis, Sherman Walt studied under Ferdinand Del Negro and Marcel Tabuteau. in about 1942, Sherman Walt entered the U.S. Army where he won a Bronze Star, participating from the Normandy landings until the entry into Germany.  Upon discharge, Sherman Walt joined the bassoon section of the Chicago Symphony in the 1946-1947 season. Sherman Walt became Principal bassoon of the Chicago Symphony for two seasons, 1949-1951. In the 1953-1954 season, based in part on a recommendation by George Szell, Sherman Walt joined the Boston Symphony under Charles Munch as Principal bassoon. Walt taught bassoon at Boston University and the New England Conservatory. Sherman Walt retired from the Boston Symphony at the end of the 1988-1989 season in May, 1989. Sherman Walt died just months after retiring, hit by an automobile in suburban Boston on October 26,1989.