Scherbaum, Adolf (b. Eger, 23 Aug 1909). German trumpeter of Austrian birth. He studied at the Prague Conservatory from 1923 to 1929, and then obtained his first professional position in a spa orchestra in Moravia. In 1929 he was appointed First trumpeter in the orchestra of the Brno Opera, and subsequently became principal trumpet in orchestras in Prague (1939-41), Berlin (1941-45), Bratislava (1946-51) and Hamburg (1951-66). In 1966 he was appointed professor at the Musikschule in Saarbrücken.
Scherbaum was already well known as a soloist before World War II. By rigorous training he developed unusually strong diaphragm and cheek muscles for sustained playing in the high register. Thus equipped, he played a leading part in the European revival of the trumpet as a solo instrument in Baroque music, and he was first to use a piccolo Bb trumpet for D trumpet parts. He has toured throughout the world as a soloist and with his own Baroque ensemble, and has made many gramophone records, including several of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto no. 2 (which he has performed more than 400 times). In 1971, with the firm of Scherbaum & Göttner, he started making trumpets with detachable bells, and mouthpieces in three parts, to allow great flexibility of timbre and pitch.
Edward H. Tarr