The Horn Call Podcast

Join me in Episode 2 of Season 2 for a discussion with composer and pianist Catherine Likhuta!

Catherine is an Australian-based composer, pianist and recording artist. Her music exhibits high emotional charge, programmatic nature and rhythmic complexity. Catherine’s pieces have been played extensively around the world, including highly prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage), Glyndebourne Opera House (Organ Room), five International Horn Symposiums and two World Saxophone Congresses, as well as many festivals and conferences. Her works have enjoyed performances by prominent symphony orchestras (such as Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra of the National Radio of Ukraine), chamber ensembles (such as Atlantic Brass Quintet, Ensemble Q, NU CORNO and U.S. Army Field Band Horns) and soloists (including former president of the North American Saxophone Alliance Griffin Campbell and president of the International Horn Society Andrew Pelletier). Catherine has held residencies at Tyalgum Music Festival, North Carolina NewMusic Initiative, University of Missouri Kansas City, University of Georgia and other institutions. She is a two-time winner of the International Horn Society Composition Contest (virtuoso division) and a recipient of several awards, including two grants from the Australia Council for the Arts. Her music can be heard on Albany, Cala, Equilibrium and Summit Records.

Catherine’s wind band works have enjoyed performances by dozens of wind ensembles, including prominent groups such as SUNY Potsdam Crane Wind Ensemble, Sydney Conservatorium Wind Symphony, University of Georgia Hodgson Wind Ensemble and University of Kentucky Wind Symphony. Her music has been played at Australian School Band and Orchestra Festival (Sydney), CBDNA Conference (Norman, OK) and Midwest Clinic (Chicago, IL).

Catherine holds a Bachelor's degree in jazz piano from Kyiv Glière Music College, a five-year post-graduate degree in composition from the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine (Kyiv Conservatory) and a PhD in composition from the University of Queensland. She is an active performer, often playing her own music. She was the soloist on the premiere and the CD recording of Out Loud, her piano concerto commissioned by the Cornell University Wind Ensemble, and the pianist on Adam Unsworth’s CD Snapshots. 

Episode Highlights

• How she ended up in the US, then Australia
• “You can be a freelance composer, but not a freelance mathematician…”
• Cultural differences between Ukraine and US
• Collaborations with Adam Unsworth, Peter Luff, Denise Tryon
• Advice for young composers
• Networking advice from a mathematician
• “Write the music you believe in…”
• Shoutout to Dana Wilson, Alexander Shuhan, Nancy Joy!
• Horn/Saxophone Rivalry
• Writing for low horn
• “Horn is such an amazing storyteller…”
• “If you write awkward music, it’s not going to come out sounding nice…”
• “I’m a geriatric millennial.”
• For details and audio samples of Cathy’s music, visit www.catherinelikhuta.com

We kick off Season 2 of the Horn Call Podcast with Yasmeen Richards, a free-lance musician based in Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia, and teacher of horn at the Peabody Preparatory and Baltimore Symphony’s OrchKids. Yasmeen is also acting president and co-founder of the Chromatic Brass Collective.

Episode Highlights

• Growing up in Southern California
• Early study on the horn with Annie Bosler
• “Lead with what you love.”
• Studying at UCLA
• Graduate study at Peabody and Denise Tryon
• Working at IHS 47 in Los Angeles
• Founding Chromatic Brass Collective: https://www.chromaticbrass.org/
• Shoutouts to Annie Bosler and Denise Tryon!
• What’s coming up for Chromatic Brass

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!