The Horn Call Podcast

Join us in Episode 29 for a conversation with the amazing Brett Hodge, Principal Horn of the Omaha Symphony and 3rd Horn of the Grant Park Festival Orchestra.

Episode Highlights

• Musical path on the horn
• Preparing for orchestral auditions
• Growing up in St. Louis, hearing the St. Louis Symphony
• Lightbulb moments
• Differences between music performance and music education
• Studying with Martin Hackleman
• Shoutout to Ryan Gruber!
• Musical heroes
• “When I need to fix something in my playing, I ask someone else.”
• “Even professionals have to work on things.”
• Wind Quintet playing
• Programming, pops repertoire
• “Having an orchestral job is not the only career out there.”
• Shoutout to Chris Castellanos!
• Career development
• “There’s more to life than just practicing…”
• “I’m not what you would call a traditional soloist…”
• Preparing for solo competitions
• Playing with the Grant Park Orchestra
• I don’t feel the need to compete with other people anymore.”
• Inspirations, musical and otherwise
• Shoutout to Josh Johnson!
• “There’s no reason to be afraid to play.”

I'm excited to share another Holiday Bonus Episode of The Horn Call Podcast! This one features a lecture given by IHS Honorary Member Alan Civil at the 4th International Horn Symposium in 1972 at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. A few editorial notes about this archival audio:

• Thanks to Dan Phillips for providing the audio file!
• This recording is 50 years old, and while adequate, the quality is spotty in a few places. I've done what I can to clean it up, and it is pretty clear overall. Mr. Civil's personality and playing come through nicely, which is what matters.
• The title of the lecture is "Are Conductors Afraid of Horn Players?"
• The duets at the end were composed by Alan Civil, and performed by Alan Civil and Shirley Hopkins Civil.

My fantastic guest for Episode 28 is Nancy Joy, horn professor at New Mexico State University, and International Symposiums Coordinator for the IHS.

Episode Highlights

• Her very first Horn Symposium in 1980
• Musical journey, impact of Miller's Blackhawks Musical Corps
• Studying with Richard Chenoweth
• Growing up on a (wal)nut farm!
• Falling in love with New Mexico
• Working at a music store
• Moving from Ohio to New Mexico
• Service to the IHS, being International Symposium Coordinator
• Planning for an IHS Symposium
• A sense of family in the IHS
• Memories from past symposiums
• Full chronology of IHS Symposiums: https://www.hornsociety.org/about-the-ihs/symposiums 

My amazing guest for Episode 27 is Anneke Scott!

Anneke is at the forefront of the historically informed performance field, and recently performed as a Featured Artist at IHS54 in Kingsville, TX.

Episode Highlights

• Working in Australia, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra
• IHS54 in Kingsville, TX
• Prince Regents Band
• Dealing with jet lag, traveling, etc: “You are just where you are…you are right here right now.  Be rigorous about establishing that you are in that time zone. Eat at the usual times in your current time zone, even if you aren’t hungry. Get outside.”
• Switching between instruments: “Don’t think about what you did yesterday and what you have to do tomorrow, just focus on what you are doing right now.”
• Getting into historically informed performance: “I like the variety of it, and the sense of exploration.”
• Growing up in Birmingham, UK, musical education
• Music Programs at Universities, Conservatories in the UK
• Studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London
• “We have a remarkable history of different kinds of horns…”
• Further study in France, Holland
• Most bizarre instrument you’ve ever played: alto ophicleide with the Prince Regents Band; Corno da tirarsi
• Video project: “Corno not Corona”
• Sense of community with the IHS
• Royal Philharmonic Society
• “We have such wonderful repertoire as horn players.”
• More on switching instruments: “It does get easier.” “I find it useful to play the mouthpieces that go with the instruments.”
• Learning Portuguese!
• Book: Historical Horn Handbook: Volume I: Natural Horn, An Introduction https://www.annekescott.com/the-historic-horn-handbooks
• Jeffrey Snedeker’s Book: Horn Teaching at the Paris Conservatoire, 1792 to 1903 The Transition from Natural Horn to Valved Horn https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003093237/horn-teaching-paris-conservatoire-1792-1903-jeffrey-snedeker 

My guest for Episode 26 is Isaac Shieh, a brilliant hornist based in the UK, by way of Australia. Be sure to follow Isaac on Instagram for some amazing natural horn playing!

Episode Highlights

• PhD Music Programs in the UK
• Moving from Australia to the UK
• The Associate in Music, Australia (AMusA)
• Annemarie Federle
• Musical life in London
• Working with Don Greene, studying performance psychology
• Discrimination
• Getting interested in historical performance, natural horn
• Studying with Anneke Scott, Roger Montgomery
• Gallay Caprices
• Switching back and forth between period and modern instruments
• Video Projects
• Viennese Rotary Horn
• “Breathe-in, breathe-out”
• Auditioning for period orchestras
• Where to find instruments
• New music for natural horn
• Composing

Join us in Episode 25 for a conversation with Gabriella Ibarra. Gabriella is an active performer, teacher, and musicologist, and serves on the editorial board of Horn and More, the IHS E-newsletter.

Episode Highlights

• Connecting horn players around the world
• El Sistema
• University system in Venezuela
• Musicological research, history of the horn in Venezuela
• Musical inspirations and role models
• Venezuelan composer for horn: Inocente Carreño
• Latin American Compositions for the Horn: Composition Contest

Join us for a rebroadcast of a live podcast on March 27, 2021 from the Northeast Horn Workshop hosted by Jonas Thoms and Albert Houde from West Virginia University. American Horn Quartet members joined from the Philharmonie Luxembourg: Kerry Turner, Geoffrey Winter, Kristina Mascher-Turner, and Guest Frank Lloyd https://www.hornquartet.com/ 

Episode Highlights

• The origin of the AHQ
• How each of the members came to live/study/work in Europe
• Anecdotes from tours over the past few decades
• The equipment they play
• How they developed a group sound
• How do they approach learning/rehearsing new repertoire in the quartet
• Suggestions for those who want to start a chamber group
• Things they know now that they wish they had known when they were in school and/or just starting out
• The relationship of the AHQ to the IHS - how important the IHS has been to them as a quartet and as individuals.

Join me for in Episode 23 for a conversation with Randall Faust about the IHS Composition Contest.

Episode Highlights

• Brief history of the composition contest: https://www.hornsociety.org/about-the-ihs/composition-projects/composition-contest 
• How things have changed.
• Structure/Divisions
• Reasons why composers should participate.
• Advice for composers, and what makes a good composition for horn.
• Who can participate?
• What are the awards?
• For even more details about the history of the competition, get the IHS 50th Anniversary Book: https://www.hornsociety.org/257-uncategorised/1665-the-international-horn-society-the-first-50-years 

Hornist, composer, author, and professor, Randall Faust has contributed to the horn community both regionally, in Western Illinois, and internationally, through the IHS and other organizations. Randy has participated in many IHS symposiums and was host of the 2009 International Horn Symposium in Macomb IL.

Faust is a retired professor of music at Western Illinois University, and performed as hornist of the Camerata Woodwind Quintet and LaMoine Brass Quintet. He has hosted the annual Western Illinois Horn Festival—bringing a variety of outstanding hornists and clinicians to the WIU Campus—and in 2009, he hosted the 41st International Horn Symposium of the International Horn Society. He has participated in regional and international symposiums. His compositions, including Quartet for Four Horns in memory of Philip Farkas, are often heard on concerts and in recordings. He has produced an instructional DVD, How to Stop a Horn. He performs and records, including works of contemporary composers. Performance credits include broadcasts over Peach State Public Radio during 12 years as principal horn of the Columbus (Georgia) Symphony Orchestra and recording as a member of the Clarion Wind Symphony.

Randy was born in 1947 in Vermillion, South Dakota, into a musical family. He studied at Interlochen, Eastern Michigan University (BS 1972), Minnesota State University Mankato (MM 1973), and the University of Iowa (DMA 1980). His horn teachers have included Marvin Howe, John Berg, Marvin McCoy, Don Haddad, Eugene Wade, Orrin Olson, Paul Anderson, Michael Hatfield, Arnold Jacobs, and Helen Kotas Hirsch; his composition teachers were Rolf Scheurer, Warren Benson, Anthony Iannaccone, Peter Tod Lewis, and Donald Martin Jenni. He has taught at Shenandoah University (1973-1982) and Auburn University (1982-1997), and has been on the faculty of the Interlochen Center for the Arts for over two decades. In 2006 he recorded Fantasies on American Themes, a CD of compositions by William Presser.

Randy’s articles and reviews have appeared in The Horn Call since 1980. He chronicled the work of his teacher, IHS Honorary Member Marvin Howe, in a 1996 Horn Call article “Marvin Howe, Singer of Smooth Melodies,” in his edition of Marvin Howe's The Singing Hornist (2001), an ongoing series of instructional videos, and in a lecture/performance involving many former Howe students at the 2016 International Horn Symposium.

Randy’s compositions have been performed at the International Trumpet Guild, the International Trombone Association, the National Gallery of Art, and the Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall and have been the subject of several doctoral dissertations. His music has been recorded on Albany Records, MSR Classics, Crystal Records, Summit Records, and ACA Digital Recordings by artists such as The Palisades Virtuosi, Andrew Pelletier, David Griffin, Ralph Lockwood, Steven Gross, Michael Hatfield, Randy Gardner, David Krehbiel, and Douglas Hill. He and his wife, Sharon, have been publishing his compositions through Faust Music since 1974.

In addition to his activities with the IHS, Randy has been president of the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors (1992-1994) and has served as Interim Chair of the Western Illinois Department of Music. He has been honored by the Western Illinois University Chapter of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi as its Outstanding Artist for 2004 and in 2006 and 2010 by the College of Fine Arts and Communication with its Creative Activity Award. He has received the ASCAP Award in annually since 1990 and the Orpheus Award from The Auburn University Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity in 1987.
Randy has served on the IHS Advisory Council (1984-1990), as Secretary-Treasurer (1986-1987), President (1987–1990), Music Review Editor for The Horn Call (1981-1990), and Composition Contest Coordinator since 2013. He received the Punto Award in 2009 and was elected an IHS Honorary Member in 2016.

With https://ihs54.com/ coming up, I thought it would be a great time to talk about equipment! Join Arizona State University's Professor of Horn, John Ericson, and me for a deep dive into mouthpieces and more!

• Check out the Horn Notes Podcast: https://hornnotes.libsyn.com/ 
• Inner Diameter can make a big difference!
• Buying mouthpieces, then versus now.
• Laskey mouthpieces and inner diameter. https://www.laskey.com/ 
• What do the numbers on mouthpieces mean?
• What does it feel like to play on a larger inner diameter?
• “Thousandths of an inch really matter.”
• Old school mouthpieces and consistency/quality control
• John Stork article on mouthpieces
• Why you should own at least five mouthpieces.
• How to test a horn/mouthpiece at a conference.
• Precision and how it affects horn building. So many variables! Example: bell rim
• “It’s difficult to really hear yourself.”
• Always test the high B-flat!

My very special guest for Episode 22 is Julia Burtscher, Executive Director of the International Horn Society!

Julia Burtscher has been playing the horn for over 30 years and lives in Toledo, Ohio. She earned a BA in Music from the University of Cincinnati and later earned her MBA from the same institution. Julia has spent most of her career in the railroad software industry, and is delighted to be the new executive director of the IHS! 

Episode Highlights

• Julia’s path to becoming Executive Director of the IHS
• Working for the Cincinnati Symphony
• Railroads are complicated!
• “I never stopped playing…”
• “The horn is my stress relief…”
• Natural horn study
• Shoutout to Paul Austin
• Cincinnati sports teams
• What does the Executive Director do?
• Updated IHS Mission Statement
• How her experience in other careers helps her be an effective leader/administrator for the IHS, and how her training as a musician helps her succeed in other areas/careers.
• Experience as an amateur musician in the IHS
• Current and/or future initiatives for the IHS, and how IHS members can play a part