Adolph Herseth, the principal trumpeter of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for 53 years and one of the most accomplished and influential orchestral trumpeters of his time, died on April 13 at his home in Oak Park, Ill. He was 91.

His death was confirmed by his wife, Avis.

Mr. Herseth was the symphony’s principal trumpet from 1948 to 2001, a stretch roughly double the average career span for elite instrumentalists and coinciding with the orchestra’s rise to the top ranks. Under Georg Solti and four other conductors he defined the orchestra’s distinctive brass sonority.

The sparkling virtuosity of his playing — and the way his cheeks flushed beet-red when he played staccato high notes — made Mr. Herseth something of a celebrity among classical music audiences in Chicago. Autograph seekers often mobbed him at the stage door of Orchestra Hall, a trumpet player or two usually among them asking to study at his feet.

But outside Chicago he was considered a buried treasure. Describing Mr. Herseth as “quite possibly the most dazzling player on his instrument in the world today,” Donal Henahan of The New York Times lamented his relative obscurity, attributing it largely to the paucity of great music for orchestral trumpet.