Walter Rogers

Walter B. Rogers (b. Delphi, Indiana, October 14, 1865 – d. Brooklyn, New York, December 24, 1939) – Cornet player, conductor, arranger, and composer. Born and raised in Indiana, Walter Rogers first learned the violin before switching to cornet. He studied at the Cincinnati Conservatory, which he could afford to attend only by saving money from gigs in Indianapolis. He returned to Indianapolis after his formal training and played cornet solos in the Indianapolis Municipal Band in 1883 and 1884. Around the same time, he conducted a town band in Goshen, Indiana, and played in Indy with new friend Herbert L. Clarke in the English Opera House Orchestra and the Schubert [Brass] Quartet. In 1886, Rogers left Indianapolis to join New York’s 7^th Regiment Band, which he conducted from 1894 to 1897. From 1900 to 1904, Rogers played as soloist off and on with the Sousa Band—sometimes sharing duties with Clarke. Starting in 1904, Rogers’s focus became conducting groups for recording companies. While working for the Victor Talking Machine Company, he conducted and performed some of the most popular instrumental recordings of the day, which were mainly light works for orchestra. (See the embedded video on "German Sounds" below for his superb cornet playing on these early recordings.) He later conducted the studio orchestras and bands of Paroquette (1916-1918) and Brunswick (1918-1928).