Louis J. Stout  joined the University of Michigan School of Music faculty in 1960, after a career as solo hornist with the Chicago Symphony, the Kansas  City Philharmonic, the New Orleans Symphony, Radio City Music Hall Symphony, Sigmund Romberg Orchestra, and the North Carolina Symphony. Widely considered one of the foremost hornists, teachers, and clinicians of French horn in America, Stout’s  former students can be found performing in symphonies  and on the faculty of major universities.

Born in Hallsport, New York in 1924, he graduated from Wellsville High School in 1940, and earned a bachelor’s degree at Ithaca College. His publications include English Folk Songs (Southern Music) and Special Fingerings for Horn. He was also known for his lecture-demonstration, The Horn: From the Forest to the Concert Hall, which drew on his historic collection of over  50 horns and in which he would explain the development of  the modern horn from its very earliest ancestors, from hunting horns made from animal tusks to Alpine horns and onto  the evolution of the modern horn. Stout was the recipient of the Harold Haugh Award for  outstanding studio teaching in 1977. A former student said “He could always be counted on and would show up at student concerts whenever he knew about them. He was devoted to his students and his students were devoted to him.”

photo courtesy of Holton