Dr. Joseph B. Carlucci
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Dr. Joseph B. Carlucci
December 26, 1924 - March 23, 2012
Dr. Joseph B. Carlucci was born on December 26, 1924, in Port Chester, New York, close to New York City, where he studied saxophone and clarinet with a former member of the Andre Kostelanetz Orchestra. He attended public schools in Port Chester until the 7th grade, then moved with his parents to Greenwich, Connecticut, and completed his elementary and high school education. He began his lifelong study and love of music in the 4th grade by playing the saxophone in his school band, thanks to a loving father, who traded in his banjo for Joseph’s first saxophone. In the 7th grade he decided that music would be his career; so, in high school, he began studying the clarinet, which he needed to lead his own dance band. He also studied music appreciation, piano, and harmony, respectively, with his band director, his band director’s wife and his band director’s daughter, all of whom were graduates of the Yale University School of Music. Upon their recommendation, Joseph was accepted at Yale as a scholarship music major in 1942 after graduation from high school.
At Yale, where he earned a Bachelor of Music degree in clarinet (the first to do so) and a Master of Music degree in composition and music theory, he sang for a time with the Yale Glee Club and played clarinet in the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. He also had the privilege of studying for three and a half years with the great German-American composer, Paul Hindemith, and won a prize for writing the best fugue in a monitored three-hour period without the aid of a piano.
After graduation from Yale, he began a forty-year college teaching career in 1950 at Northwestern State College (now University) of Louisiana in Natchitoches, where he taught music theory and woodwinds and later conducted the orchestra. In 1955-57, he took a leave-of-absence from Northwestern to earn a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Clarinet Performance and Pedagogy, with a minor in Orchestral Conducting, at the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. In 1960 he became Head of the Music Department at Northwestern and established a master’s degree in music. In 1966 he founded the Natchitoches-Northwestern Symphony Orchestra, which, during its 30th anniversary year, presented Dr. Carlucci with a plaque in recognition of serving as its first Conductor.
In 1969, Dr. Carlucci accepted a position as Assistant Director of the School of Music at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. Part of his duties included serving as Coordinator of the Blossom Festival School, a summer program for gifted young musicians jointly sponsored by Kent State and the world-famous Cleveland Orchestra. The idea was similar to the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Summer Music School in Massachusetts. Following the unfortunate and highly publicized student shooting incident of 1970, Dr. Carlucci, along with other faculty members, decided to leave Kent. He contacted Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, because he had been offered a position there on two previous occasions, and was immediately hired.
On Christmas Eve, 1970, Dr. Carlucci arrived in Beaumont to become Professor of Music at Lamar University and, after a series of interviews and trial concerts, was also selected to be the Conductor/Music Director of the then Beaumont Symphony Orchestra. At Lamar University he taught music theory and woodwinds (particularly the clarinet), conducted the Orchestra and the Cardinal Strings, conducted Lamar opera productions for ten years in coordination with his good friend and colleague, Joseph Truncale, and eventually became Director of Graduate Music Studies. He retired from Lamar University in 1990 after nineteen years of service.
During his nineteen year stint with the Beaumont Symphony Orchestra (now The Symphony of Southeast Texas) his goal was to transform a small basically volunteer community group into a large professional orchestra and he was successful in that endeavor. He increased the number of musicians in the orchestra, broadened the repertoire, engaged world famous guest artists, introduced a statewide Piano Concerto Contest, which was eminently successful for about ten years, introduced Pop Concerts (outdoor and indoor), inaugurated out-of-town concerts in Port Arthur, Orange and Silsbee, and expanded the Youth Concert format by featuring talented young soloists with the orchestra. Highlights of his tenure included an American Bicentennial Concert featuring six combined Beaumont high school choruses, the commissioning of a groundbreaking work for Jazz Band and Symphony Orchestra by Tommy Newsom of TV’s Tonight Show fame and combining forces with local cultural organizations such as The Beaumont Interfaith Choral Society, the Beaumont Ballet Theatre and the Beaumont Civic Ballet. As a guest conductor, he appeared several times with the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, UIL Region Orchestras in Beaumont, Houston, Lake Jackson, Dallas, and Abilene, and with the new music Reading Orchestra at state meetings in San Antonio of the Texas Orchestra Director’s Association. As time allowed, he accepted music judging assignments in Beaumont, Amarillo and elsewhere. He retired from the symphony in 1990 but returned in 2000 to serve as the orchestra’s Interim Executive Director for two years.
In the community, Dr. Carlucci was a member of the Rotary Club of Beaumont from 1971 to 1995. During that period he served as Sergeant-at-Arms, Secretary and Treasurer. He also conducted the “famous” Rotary Club Chorus for sixteen years and thoroughly enjoyed taking part in numerous Rotary “Swan Song” productions. In appreciation, Rotary honored him by making him a Paul Harris Fellow. In addition to Rotary, he served on the original planning committee for the construction of the Beaumont Civic Center complex and the remodeling of the old City Auditorium, which became what is now the Julie Rogers Theatre for the Performing Arts. He belonged to the Beaumont Country Club, Business and Professional Men’s Club, Southeast Texas Arts Council, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont Heritage Society, Tyrrell Historical Library and served on the Boards of the Beaumont Music Commission and the Beaumont Civic Ballet.
During his lengthy career Dr. Carlucci became a member of the following fraternal organizations: Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (professional music fraternity; lifetime member), Phi Eta Sigma, Phi Kappa Phi and Blue Key. He was also an honorary member of the Symphony League of Beaumont and the Symphony of Southeast Texas Board of Directors.
Following his retirement, Dr. Carlucci was finally able to devote time to one of his favorite activities, the composing of original musical compositions. He produced pieces for piano, organ, violin, voice, chorus, chamber music groups, band and symphony orchestra. He was honored by the presentation of an entire program of his music as part of the Leland Best Concert Series of the First United Methodist Church in Beaumont. He wrote a fanfare for orchestra and a choral work as part of the 100th anniversary of the Spindletop Gusher. The National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., commissioned a festival anthem for its choir and invited Dr. Carlucci and his wife, Peggy Wilson, to attend the premiere performance in Washington. He was especially interested in sacred music and produced special arrangements for solo voice and organ of well known hymns, all of which have been performed locally. In September 2009 Dr. Carlucci became a volunteer worker in The Mary and John Gray Library at Lamar University, where he devoted three afternoons per week to the Archives Department.
Dr. Carlucci was preceded in death by his parents, Joseph Fred Carlucci and Sarah Elizabeth Popkins Carlucci; his first wife, Rose Brittain Carlucci; and his second wife, Margaret June (Peggy) Wilson Carlucci.
He is survived by his step-daughter, Janie Lynn Urbanic of Chicago, and her husband, Gary Schuetz; two step-sons, Jackson Broocks Osborne, Jr., and his wife, Jeannie Willcox Osborne, of Houston, and Allen Wilson Osborne and his longtime companion, Diane Arceneaux, of Nederland; and two step-grandsons, Jackson Broocks (Jay) Osborne III and his wife, Erin, of Niceville, Florida, and Eugene Edwards (Gene) Osborne of Houston; and step-great-great grandson, Jackson Osborne. Also a niece, Joan Lynn Roberts of Beaumont; two grand-nephews, Clay and Greg Roberts of Dallas and Houston, respectively; and great-grand nephew, Caleb Roberts; two grand-nieces, Melissa Goodman of Houston, and Lynn Duplecion of Lumberton; a great-grand-niece, Haley Rose Lee of Lumberton; three great-grand-nephews, Kyle Joseph, Kirby and Jake Duplecion, of Lumberton; and a great-great-grand-niece, Jaycee Rose Abbo and great-great-grand-nephew, Bryndyn Lee Abbo both of Lumberton.
Dr. Carlucci was a member of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, from June 5, 1959, to the time of his passing.
A gathering of his family and friends will be from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m., Tuesday, March 27, 2012, at Broussard’s, 2000 McFaddin Avenue, Beaumont. His funeral service will be 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, March 28, 2012, at Broussard’s, with interment to follow at Magnolia Cemetery, 2291 Pine Street, Beaumont.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to The Symphony of Southeast Texas Rose Carlucci Endowment Fund, 4345 Phelan Boulevard, Suite 105, Beaumont, Texas 77707; Dr. Joseph B. Carlucci Endowed Scholarship Fund at Lamar University Foundation, P.O. Box 11500, Beaumont, Texas 77710; or to a charity of one’s choice.
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