Badollet Ensemble History
This ensemble is the brain child of mine for a very long time. First and foremost, I have a deep passion for chamber music and genealogy. So, I have been able to finally combine these two loves into a vibrant ensemble that can represent my family history and my desire to see the trumpet used as a chamber ensemble and solo instrument that shows off it’s ability to work well with more traditionally held chamber instruments, such as the violin or flute expanding to a full chamber ensemble.
Francis (Frank) Vigo Badollet, Flutist born in Iowa 1870, son of Vigo and Caroline (Claypoole) Badollet. Studied with Otto Oesterle at the National Conservatory in New York. Was principal in the Marine Band before becoming Principal flute with the Philadelphia, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh Symphonies. Later joined the faculty at the University of Oregon. Died 1934. Recorded on Victor Talking Machine Company 1900-3. Created the Badollet Flute Trio.
Margaret Caldwell Shotwell, Pianist, born 1907 Omaha, Nebraska. Married Captain James Wylie Arnold in 1925 toured Europe and America as a concert pianist. She studied at the National Conservatory of Music in New York. Her father was a Nebraska Supreme Court Judge who’s bachelor friend died and left Margaret, age 12, a fortune he had in the Reynolds Tobacco stock. The stock was worth about a million dollars which she sold and invested in Wall Street just before the stock market crash of 1929 after she had arrived back from France on a concert tour. She lost everything and not much is know of her life after this time. Her father died very shortly after her loss.
Margaret’s mother was the Nebraska-born poet Margaret Badollet Caldwell Shotwell who was an active participant in Omaha literary circles. She helped to initiate "Nebraska Writers' Week" in 1923, wrote the weekly column "Bibliophile by Badollet" in the Omaha Daily News, and published a volume of verse entitled Felicia Says in 1924. She created some controversy when she wrote a poem critical of a portrait of Willa Cather that had been commissioned for the Omaha Public Library. The city asked Cather to select the artist, and she chose Leo Bakst. Shotwell's poem was published in the Omaha Daily News, and was so controversial that it was reprinted not long after in Publishers Weekly. Critic Vicki Martin, who gathered these facts for an article on the incident, writes that "while the poem seems to be predicting dissatisfaction with the portrait by the people who commissioned it, it actually is responsible for creating a great deal of that dissatisfaction."
Jean (John) Louis Badollet, progenitor of all American Badollet descendants (my 5th great grandfather), was born in Geneva, Switzerland 14 Jul 1757. He immigrated to American about 1786 following his collegiate friend, Albert Gallatin (Secretary of the Treasury under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison). Badollet was sent to Vincennes, Indiana (capital of the Northwest Territory) in 1804 to register land purchases as the land registrar. He held this position until his death and was part of every legislative committee that wrote the constitution for the state of Indiana in 1816. Jean did not follow the family business of watch making that began in the family in 1655 and remains the Badollet Watches today.
Daniel Louis Duncan, his music education began a bit late at the age of 13 with the cornet. By the age of 14 he was 1st chair cornet in his area junior district band. Daniel was in the Kentucky All State Orchestra in high school and received the John Phillips Souza Band Award.
He continued the cornet exclusively until entering college, studying with James Bursen at the University of Evansville in Indiana where he was a concerto competition winner, soloist with the wind ensemble, and winner of the University's prestigious Gumberts Award. He was also a student conductor of the wind ensemble. During this time he was 3rd/Asst. Principal Trumpet of the Evansville Philharmonic and 2nd Trumpet with the Owensboro Symphony and Symphony Brass Quintet.
Daniel worked with Leon Rapier at the University of Louisville for his Masters. While at Louisville Daniel performed 3 highly praised solo recitals, was a finalist in the concerto competition, performed and recorded with the Louisville Orchestra, won a position with the Lexington Philharmonic, and continued performing with the Owensboro Symphony.
As a teaching assistant in the Doctorate program at the University of Southern Mississippi, Daniel performed and toured with the faculty brass quintet, the Southern Arts Quintet, and performed with the Meridian, and Gulf Coast Symphony.
Daniel moved to Boston and became a freelancer traveling to Miami to sub with the New World Symphony, becoming a finalist for the Concerts Atlantique European Touring program of New York, a finalist for the 3rd/Asst. Principal trumpet in the San Diego Symphony audition, and the only finalist for the artist diploma at Boston University that year, and started his first brass quintet the Boston Brass Guild. Daniel decided to pursue a graduate diploma at the New England Conservatory of Music studying with Charles Schlueter and Timothy Morrison and receiving distinction in performance. Daniel was a Tanglewood fellow winning the Andre Come Memorial Fellowship.
Continuing to freelance after NEC, Daniel became Principal Trumpet of the Key West Symphony for their first 4 years, recording 6 CD's with the Orchestra, subbing with the Boston Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony on tour, the Palm Beach Opera, touring throughout the US as Principal Trumpet with the 75th Anniversary presentation of the Opera Porgy and Bess, performing with the touring Bolshoi and Royal Ballets. He started his second brass quintet, Brass Domain, that collaborated with the composers group (Composers in Time) giving contemporary performances in Boston. One of the composers of this group wrote an unaccompanied solo work for trumpet dedicated to Daniel. In 2010 he was a finalist for the Principal Trumpet position in the Calgary Philharmonic. During this time Daniel performed many shows with the Boston Lyric Stage, the Seacoast Repertory Theatre, the Ogunquit Playhouse, and many other theaters in New England.
After moving to Connecticut, Daniel has established himself as a performer and teacher. He currently teaches at the Neighborhood Music School in New Haven, coaches the New Haven Youth Orchestra brass section, and conducts chamber ensembles. Daniel freelances as a performer giving solo recitals, playing lead trumpet with the Curtain Call Theatre in Stamford, subbing with the New Haven Symphony, and performing with various brass quintets.
Daniel spends his free time with his wife Beau, an accomplished compliance officer, lawyer, and writer; and their son, Sam; dragging them into his love of history, genealogy, and graveyards. Aren't they lucky!
