Thomas Stacy

Lincoln Center Fountain at Night

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

Here's something you don't read in a professional musician's biography, or obituary, very often:

He largely taught himself to play the oboe and English horn, using a book that showed the fingerings. He was 17 and still a junior in high school when the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., gave him a full scholarship.

Remarkable in multiple ways: taught himself to play and became good enough for a full scholarship to Eastman...after he'd only played for a few years. He started at 14. This is from the NY Times obit for Thomas Stacy, who played English horn in the NY Philharmonic for nearly 40 years. He died on April 30 2023.