The Horn Call Podcast

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.

Dr. Jena Gardner is the Assistant Professor of Horn at Western Illinois University. Join us for a conversation about teaching, performing, and avoiding online teaching fatigue.

Episode Highlights

• Shoutout to Gail Williams!
• Growing up in California, studying with Jim Winter and David Krehbiel
• We crave interaction as teachers
• Self-care and avoiding “Zoom fatigue”
• Yay for Alexander Technique!
• Fundamentals and self-awareness are important.
• 2020 Western Horn Festival Group Warmup - https://youtu.be/naP8Uus1ld8
• Sing, Buzz, Play!
• Shoutout to Bill Caballero!
• Networks, relationships are important to your career and well being.
• We meet Jena’s cat!
• IHS Composition Contest

We hope you enjoy this special Holiday Bonus Episode of The Horn Call Podcast. Join me for a conversation with David Krehbiel, retired Principal Horn of the San Francisco Symphony, and author of Through the Door: A Horn Player's Journey.

Episode Highlights

• His new book, Through the Door: A Horn Player’s Journey
• Creative Not Caring
• Spiritual journey through music and horn playing.
• His audition for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
• Memorable moments from his career, including a performance with the San Francisco Symphony following 9/11 and an improvised duet with Dale Clevenger at the 1971 International Horn Symposium.
• Why join the IHS?

Join me in Episode 4 of The Horn Call Podcast for a conversation with Dr. Margaret Tung, Visiting Assistant Professor of Horn at the University of Kentucky.

• Episode Highlights
• Benefits of having a university horn ensemble as a class
• Balancing personal and professional life
• Interviewing for a college teaching job and playing a recital while nine months pregnant.
• Shoutout to Elizabeth Freimuth, Principal Horn of the Cincinnati Symphony!
• “Quality over Quantity”
• IHS Social Media strategy
• Shoutout to Julia Burtscher, IHS Executive Director!
• Mentoring that happens in a horn ensemble.
• IHS Online Music Sales!

Join us in Episode 3 for a conversation with Dr. Gina Gillie. Gina is an Associate Professor of Music at Pacific Lutheran University where she teaches horn, composition, and aural skills, conducts a horn choir, and performs frequently with faculty groups and in solo and chamber recitals. As an orchestral player, she played Assistant Principal with Symphony Tacoma for 10 years and has also played with the Northwest Sinfonietta, the Seattle Soundtrack Orchestra, and the Auburn Symphony. She has soloed on natural horn with the Everett Philharmonic and Rainier Symphony. She is a member of two faculty chamber ensembles at PLU, the Camas Wind Quintet and the Lyric Brass Quintet.

• Episode Highlights
• Importance of singing for horn players
• Thoughts on composing
• Candid talk about recovering from embouchure overuse
• Importance of other activities
• "You’re more than your playing."
• Why you shouldn’t impose a timeline on your recovery
• How to support colleagues/friends who are recovering from a playing injury
• Aerial Silks Video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5eRxsTquxs
• Elegant simplicity!
• IHS Online Music Sales
• Publishing information for composers
• Gina explains the difference between a “Printing and Distribution” contract and a “Publishing” contract.
• Why score study is important for composers.