Carole E. Nowicke
Carole Nowicke’s “day job” is as a reference librarian and research associate in the Department of Applied Health Science at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Her “night job” is with American Military University of Charles Town, West Virginia as a reference librarian and subject specialist in Public Health, Sports Management, and Hospitality Management. In her spare time, she takes belly dance lessons with a trombonist and dances with the Caravanserai troupe, plays with power tools, and rides or drives her North American Spotted Draft Horse, “The Gypsy Baron,” aka “Muffin.” Her previous employers include the Henry Ford Museum, U.S. Marine Corps Museum, the Navy Laboratories Archives, the Kinsey Institute and Walden University. She holds a Ph.D. from Indiana University in Library and Information Science and American Studies, an M.L.S. from the University of Maryland, and a B.A. from Western Michigan University. She studied tuba with J. Lesley Varner, Robert L. Whaley and Robert J. Pallansch, bass with Philip Albright and Marshall Hutchinson, and ophicleide with Robert E. Eliason. As Historian of the International Tuba-Euphonium Association she made conducting oral histories with tuba and euphonium players her special project. A number of her subjects recorded during those years, including Sam Green, Arthur Hicks, Oscar LaGassé, Frederick Marzan, Abe Torchinsky and Lew Waldeck are now deceased. At the 2003 ITG conference in Ft.Worth, Texas, she presented, “Sound and Visions: Glass Images from the Legacy of Cornet Soloist Walter F. Smith,” with Jack Laumer. A lecture with Abe Torchinsky at the 2003 Association for Recorded Sound Collection conference on “The Philadelphia Brass Ensemble: Baroque Brass, Gabrieli, Hindemith and ‘Torchy Jones’” led to a later series of conference presentations with John Almeida on the recording of the Grammy-winning Gabrieli album s. She ventured into the world of the slide in 2008 with an invited paper for the International Trombone Festival, “Pryor Knowledge: Arthur Pryor’s Era in American Popular Culture.” The “day job’s” subject-related conference presentations were on such diverse topics as hallucinogenic plants and adolescent problem gambling. Presentation:The Influence of the “Sousaphone” Players of John Philip Sousa Carole Nowicke spent a number of years immersed in “all things Sousa” while working at the U.S. Marine Corps Museum which at that time housed the largest collection of John Philip Sousa’s press books, personal papers, sheet music, and paraphernalia. The holdings included Sousa’s medals, trophies, batons, plaques, photographs, uniforms, other sports clothing, shoes, boots, and many pairs of his famous white kidskin gloves which he may or may not have “worn only once.” Regular researchers in the collection included Paul E. Bierley, Frederick P. Williams, and Keith Brion. Members of the Sousa family would occasionally visit the museum. Related collections of personal papers, music, and objects from other members of the Sousa and Marine bands supplemented the Sousa holdings. If World War I bandsmen from the Great Lakes Naval Training center in Illinois were included in the total, thousands of musicians could claim that they had played under John Philip Sousa. The Sousa band may have provided more employment opportunities for tuba players during its forty years of existence than any other single musical organization in the United States. Some members only played one tour with the band, and others, like August Helleberg, Jack Richardson and Herman Conrad, lasted many seasons. Who were the “Sousaphone” players with Sousa? Did they actually play “Sousaphones?” Are there identifiable recordings by these men? Can their pedagogical lineage be traced? Did they contribute innovations in tuba design? What did they do in the “off” season? The session will discuss the careers of some of the better-known “Sousaphone” players of the Sousa Band, what life on the road with Sousa was like, and why performing with this traveling band was one of the best career opportunities for a musician in the late 19th and early 20th century.
