Former UNL professor and trumpet great Schneider dies

There’s no doubt, though, that many others will remember him for the trumpet skills that led him to share the stage with the likes of Doc Severinsen, Henry Mancini and Arturo Sandoval.

Schneider, who taught for 36 years at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln before retiring in 1997, died Wednesday at 84 from complications from dementia, according to his younger son, Bill.

Not long after his death, his students began sharing stories on “The Students of Denny Schneider” Facebook page created in July 2011.

“Practice fast, learn slow, practice slow, learn fast,” goes one of his one-liners.

“Don’t try to outfight trumpet, try to outsmart it.”

Or the one he’s most known for: “Straight ahead kid.”

Louie Eckhardt, who studied with Schneider from 2000 to 2005, used part of the saying for the title for the doctoral thesis he defended in March at Louisiana State University, “Straight Ahead: The Life, Pedagogy, and Influence of Dennis L. Schneider.”

“Denny had so many wonderful students,” Eckhardt said. “He made a difference in my life. He made a difference in the trumpet world. Everybody had a lot of respect for him.”

Eckhardt’s thesis also included a section about Schneider’s “pink sheet” -- four music scales hand-written on a piece of staff paper. Schneider’s then-graduate assistant Dean Haist -- now president of Arts Incorporated -- made copies of it on pink paper.

“It was the bible of playing trumpet all on one page,” said Barb Schmit, Arts Incorporated research and development director and former Schneider student. “I just pulled it out yesterday to look at it again.”

Born April 12, 1931, in McCook, Schneider began playing trumpet as a boy, joining his father’s 16-piece big band at 14.

A 1947 move to Lincoln proved beneficial to the high schooler, who started taking lessons from the late John Shildneck, founder of the Lincoln Municipal Band. Shildneck introduced him to classical music, and Schneider played his first Lincoln Symphony concert in 1948.

He graduated from Lincoln High in 1949, and finished his bachelor's degree at the University of Nebraska in three years. After that, he entered the military and spent four years with the Strategic Air Command Band, then earned his master's degree from Indiana University.

Schneider returned to Nebraska and taught music at Falls City High School, where he hooked up with Albert Maust, a Richardson County judge and incredible tenor sax player. Schneider played in Maust's band until he accepted a position three years later to teach trumpet at UNL.

It was at UNL that he found his true calling: He loved to teach. His skill earned him local and national recognition, including the International Trumpet Guild Award of Merit in 2012. His students included internationally acclaimed jazz drummer Victor Lewis and the late trumpet great Laurie Frink, who worked extensively on Broadway and with the Benny Goodman Orchestra, the Mel Lewis Orchestra and Gerry Mulligan’s Concert Jazz Band, often playing lead.

Learning from Schneider “was like having a teacher, a friend, a father figure, a philosopher and the best trumpet player all in the room at the same time, every week,” Schmit said.

Schneider also continued to play. He served as principal trumpet for the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, the Nebraska Chamber Orchestra and contributed to the Omaha and St. Louis symphonies. He fronted his own band in the 1970s and '80s.

Bill Schneider said his father’s talents went beyond the trumpet. He was a golfer -- once scoring two holes-in-one in one week -- a licensed pilot, fly fisherman, gardener and amateur photographer.

“He could have went big time, but he stuck around for us kids,” Bill Schneider said. “He loved Lincoln.”

Survivors include Denny Schneider's wife, Judith, daughters Cece Norton and Buffy Hastreiter and sons Mike and Bill Schneider.

Services are set for Tuesday at 10:02 a.m. -- his favorite tee time -- at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, 7900 Trendwood Drive.