Frances Estes holds degrees from Texas Christian University and Southern Methodist University. She is a member of the Fort Worth Symphony and the Fort Worth Opera Orchestra. In addition to her work with Marcel Dandois, she has also studied with Daniel McAninch and Stevens Hewitt.
Marcel Dandois . . . if you chanced to meet him only once you would likely not forget his smile and friendly French accent. Were you fortunate enough to have studied oboe with him, your playing and your teaching to this day reflect his uncompromising artistic ideals and his vast knowledge of oboe repertoire. Of course, if one just happened to visit in his home, he recalls, "Cherie, bring a little wine or a cup of soup!" Surely no caller ever left without a hospitable snack, whether buying an oboe or a dozen pieces of cane.
Remember it was Marcel J. Dandois and Company. Surprisingly, the "and Company" was petite and charming but certainly a competent business woman, Irene Dandois. She handled reed cane and instrument orders expertly and promptly .
Marcel and Irene married the first of June 1918 in Bradford Yorkshire, England. He had been serving in the Belgian Army for four years, part of the time actually fighting in the trenches and the other part playing snare drum in a military band.
After his release from the Army, he resumed his first chair oboe position at the Monnaie Opera and the Concerts Populaires. In 1920 he opened a piano store in Brussels at the Rue du Meridien. Here he sold oboes, clarinets, saxophones, and tuned and repaired pianos.
Mrs. Dandois says, "He prospered by hard work. Why did he leave an established position to come to America in 1928? Partly perhaps the fear of another probable war that would engulf his only son? Or the urge to try his luck in America?"
Actually this particular migration was not new to the Dandois clan, for when Marcel was only eight years of age, all the Dandois except his branch of the family came to the U.S.A. In fact his grandfather is buried in Jeannette near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
At the very time the rest of the family moved to America, Marcel Joseph Dandois, born December 29, 1890 in Roux, Belgium, began the study of the oboe. He had already attended solfeggio class all through grade school at a private music school. It was said among his relatives that he knew his notes before he knew his alphabet. At age thirteen he was accepted at the Brussels Royal Conservatory and studied with Professor Guide.
With his Conservatory background and twelve years of opera experience, he left his thriving piano-instrument business to come to the United States. During the 1928 season he played under Stokowski in the Philadelphia Orchestra. From 1929 to 1956 he was in Cincinnati as principal oboe under Fritz Reiner, Eugene Goossens, and Thor Johnson. All these years he also taught at the Conservatory and College of Music.
While in Cincinnati in 1930 he began importing and improving oboes, a project that lasted throughout his life. His wife says, "He could have made a lot of money, but was too honest to exploit a fellow musician." We who did business with him will certainly verify her words.
In 1957 he came to Ft. Worth, Texas, the home of his son, where he taught oboe at Texas Christian University for eleven years, and also played in the Ft. Worth Symphony and Opera. Being energetic and ready to try new experiments, he gathered arundo donax and made reeds from it in all scrapes and styles. In his good-natured outlook, he considered reed-making "a challenge." All his tools, cane, and paraphernalia were kept in an unusually tidy and well-organized manner.
In later years he felt if he could not demonstrate on the oboe what he taught (and his doctor frowned upon both playing and teaching), he preferred not to teach, but was ever ready to help in coaching or giving advice. He continued his cane and instrument business, however. In this respect, he never really retired.
If one ponders the possibility of one individual being an understanding person, a sensitive musician, and a uniquely communicating teacher, Marcel Dandois proves this combination of qualities. We often feel one must be a tyrant to demand dedicated work from students; but, out of mutual respect, not fear, did one work with him. He expected your best; his gentleness was no indication of accepting mediocrity.
After a painful illness of seven weeks, his life ended September 15, 1970, but the goodness and ideals that were his live on within us who knew him. For his influence we are deeply thankful.
Editor's note: A Scholarship fund has been established in the name of this great artist and teacher. Donations can be sent to Rheta R. Smith, Chairman, the Marcel J. Dandois Memorial Fund, Box 199, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania 19009.