The Horn Call Podcast

Join us in Episode 12 for a conversation with Robert Lee Watt, who was a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic horn section for 37 years and an active studio musician. Bob was the first African-American hornist hired by a major symphony orchestra in the United States. 

Episode Highlights

• Musicians supporting one another during COVID-19
• The invention of the Watt Lifter
• Moving from the East Coast to the West Coast and Southern California
• Studio playing in the early 1970s
• Sidelining stories
• His books: The Black Horn and French Horn Tips and Tricks https://www.robertleewatt.com/
• Films selected for the Pan African Film Festival, https://www.paff.org/
• The story behind the cover photo on his album, I Play French Horn, https://www.amazon.com/Play-French-Horn-Brubeck-Traditional/dp/B07BSMHFWZ 
• Friendship with Miles Davis
• Working with Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles
• What if Mozart and Beethoven had heard the Blues?

Join me in Episode 11 for a conversation with Douglas Hill, Emeritus Professor of Music-Horn at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, past President of the IHS, and former member of the IHS Advisory Council.

Episode Highlights

• Retiring from UW-Madison, remaining musically active post-retirement (Professor Hill retired from UW-Madison in 2011)
• Activities during COVID-19
• Lung surgery, cancer recovery
• Past and current compositions for the horn, available online at https://hornsociety.org/marketplace/oms
• Article on unaccompanied horn music in the May 2021 issue of The Horn Call
• The only constant is change…
• Much love for Nancy Becknell!
• His passion for birds and birding
• Recent compositions
• IHS thoughts

Join us for a discussion with Dr. Jeffrey Snedeker, Editor of a forthcoming special volume dedicated to the 50th Anniversary of the IHS. Jeff is Professor of Horn at Central Washington University, and is a member of the IHS Advisory Council, Past President of the IHS, past Editor of The Horn Call, and was awarded the IHS Service Medal of Honor in 2020.

Episode Highlights

Overview of the 50th Anniversary volume
Discussion of the planning, creation process 
Chapters
Anticipated release date
Where can someone buy the book?
Jeff’s Book on the Paris Conservatory is out soon by Routledge

In Episode 10 of The Horn Call Podcast I speak with Dr. Katy Ambrose, Visiting Assistant Professor of Horn at the University of Iowa, and author of the article "Unlocking the Past: William Lee and The Rodenbostel Horn at Mount Vernon” in the February 2021 issue of The Horn Call. *This episode was recorded on January 20, 2021.

Episode Highlights

• What led Katy to her research on William Lee and the Rodenbostel Horn
• Check out her article “Unlocking the Past: William Lee and The Rodenbostel Horn at Mount Vernon” in the February 2021 issue of The Horn Call.
• Recording concerts during the COVID-19 pandemic
• First rehearsals with an orchestra after a year apart
• Resources for historical research
• Getting the Billy Strayhorn suite published: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeUCtYxaNY8
• Katy’s video presentation, “The French Horn in the Lives of Musicians of African and Creole Descent in America, 1700-2000” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARSVtiXPnmc
• Being a founding member of Seraph Brass
• Shout out to Jennifer Montone!

Join me for an educational (and fun!) discussion with Dr. James Naigus and Dr. Drew Phillips, Editors of the "Creative Hornist" and "Technique Tips" columns in The Horn Call. In addition to their work in The Horn Call, James and Drew are both active performers and full time college teachers.

Episode Highlights

• James and Drew’s Horn Call Columns: Creative Hornist and Technique Tips
• Shoutout to Professor Jeffry Agrell!
• Why it’s good to “borrow” literature from other instruments
• How they stay motivated and creative.
• Their podcasts, The Complete Musician and James and Drew Talk about Everything
• “There’s more to life than music…”
• James and Drew are undefeated escape room champions.
• “Teachers are people too.”
• The first thing they are going to do when COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.
• Why the original Nintendo controller is like the horn.
  It’s good to be a nerd!

In Episode 8, I sit down with Professor Jeffrey Agrell from the University of Iowa. Jeff is one of the most creative people I know, and he has brilliant ideas on improvisation, music education, and much more!

Episode Highlights

• Why “limitations are a creative person’s best friend.”
• Limitations force us to discover something new.
• We are hardwired to not like change
• Serial duets “I go, you go.”
• We need aural training on our instrument(s).
• Benefits of playing without notation.
• Improv games
• How improvisation “ties it all together.”
• Recommended book: Cut the Knot, Alexander Bogomolny
• Looking at “mistakes” in a different way
• We are all born creative.
• One of Jeff's many books, Improvisation Games for Classical Musicians
• Another recommended book: Thinker Toys, Michael Michalko
• SCAMPER: Substitute/Combine/Adapt/Modify(Also Magnify and Minify)/Put to another use/Eliminate/Retrograde
• Shout out to Ricardo Matosinhos!
• Why deadlines are really good.
• You are not alone.

In this Bonus Episode, I speak with the hosts of the 2021 Northeast Horn Workshop, Jonas Thoms and Albert Houde. The 2021 NEHW will take place March 25-28, and features an impressive list of guest artists as well as numerous collaborating artists, presentations, and more.

Episode Highlights

• Making the transition from an in-person workshop to a virtual one
• Advantages to the virtual format
• Biggest challenges of the format and what they are doing to address them
• When it comes to virtual workshops, “Don’t just observe, engage.”
• Horn Teaching Project
• Albert will be premiering a new piece he commissioned from Frank Gulino at the NEHW

Join us in Episode 7 of The Horn Call Podcast for a discussion about "Innovation in Horn Teaching and Performance" with Dr. John Ericson, Professor of Music at Arizona State University, and co-founder of Horn Matters.

Episode Highlights

• John's 30 Modern Preparatory Etudes book
• How he wrote his own etudes
• Self-publishing
• Challenging conventional wisdom in brass pedagogy
  • Mouthpiece pressure
  • Tonguing
  • A mouthpiece change can help!
  • Stainless steel and brass mouthpieces
  • Metal allergies
• Now is a “Golden Age” for equipment
• Innovation in chamber music
• Dr. Ericson takes a sabbatical!

Our very special guest for Episode 6 ofThe Horn Call Podcast  is renowned performer and pedagogue Frøydis Ree Wekre. 

She is an Honorary Member and past President of the IHS.

Episode Highlights

• Her new book, Collected Writings
• Developing your teaching, learning how to get to the point quickly
• Benefit of having a group of pedagogues sharing ideas, recording your teaching
• How to stay positive in your career
• Aging and horn playing
• Staying motivated and helping your students stay motivated
• Different types of intonation: tempered, melodic (expressive or horizontal), harmonic (just)
• Join the IHS: It’s the right thing to do.
• Memorable Horn Symposia
• Hear her performance of Bujanovsky’s España live at the 1982 IHS Symposium in Avignon, France

Happy New Year! In this New Year Bonus Episode, we share archival recordings in memory of Honorary Member Ib Lanzky-Otto (1940-2020). The first is from a lecture recital at the 1970 IHS Workshop in Tallahassee, Florida, USA, and the second is from a presentation at the 1972 IHS Workshop in Bloomington, Indiana, USA.