A Road Trip by Amy Sanchez

The following is a reflection from my recent 3-month solo adventure in travel, self-discovery, and of course, horn playing! Originally shared on Facebook, this post focused more on the first two rather than the latter, but I did indeed practice and record horn while on the road! I brought my recording gear with me (AEA ribbon mic, Apogee interface, laptop with ProTools) so I didn’t have to turn down any remote recording work, and rented a few hotels and AirBnbs along the way to do some teaching and master classes as well. While the pandemic has undoubtedly been difficult, it has also provided some unique opportunities. In addition to my “normal” work of teaching and recording, I spent much of my time on the trip photographing and filming for a yet-to-be disclosed project involving music and my passion for conservation. Hint: the project is related to a brass ensemble I’ve started, Horns for Rhinos, supporting the South African wildlife conservation non-profit Nkombe Rhino. You may remember an article in the May 2019 IHS Horn Call about my initial work with this endeavor!

Possibility.

“Everything you want is on the other side of fear.”

-Jack Canfield (also attributed to George...

There’s SNOW-place like the IHS for the holidays! Help us bring life to this snow person, as we’ll be adding more personality for every NEW Horn Society membership we receive from now until Dec 31! JOIN NOW  or give a GIFT Membership. 

by Lindsey Stoker and Richard Steggall

2020 is a big celebration year for the British Horn Society as it marks the 40th anniversary of its founding. It was due to be celebrated with a festival at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire on Sunday 1st November featuring guest soloists Radek Baborák and Ben Goldscheider. With the COVID outbreak and the country in lockdown it was looking increasingly unlikely that it would be able to go ahead. Time to think outside the box!

The main problem that we faced was that the lure of our annual festival for many is a social one. Yes, we showcase the best in horn-playing from Britain and abroad, but the focus is on being together, talking about and playing the horn. We have recitals, classes and group playing for young and old throughout the day, and for a lot of players the highlight is the massed blow at the end of the evening concert where children, amateurs and professionals all rub shoulders. We were determined still to hold a festival on 1st November, but how could we recreate that sense of community in an online event?

A festival sub-committee was formed and, with the help of Zoom, came up with an programme that we could stream on the day. Initially we decided to ask professional players around the country to submit videos talking about technique and also invited members to submit remote ensemble recordings for a competition as well as an online valve stringing contest, with prizes for speed and style. Given the coronavirus restrictions that musicians were experiencing, it also seemed like an opportunity to invite orchestral sections to introduce themselves, perhaps talking about their new work environment, what they might be missing or whatever they felt might be interesting for the BHS community. The final result was a mixture of these elements. Some sections were sadly unable to contribute as they were still not back at work.

At the 11th hour a window of opportunity opened for there to be a live-streamed...

Hi Everyone, Patrick Hughes here, coming to you from Austin TX.  I am one of your Advisory Council members, and the IHS Scholarship Coordinator. I hope that all of our IHS members and their loved ones are healthy and staying safe. I’m writing today to give everyone an update on the IHS Scholarship Program Competitions.

 First and foremost: All the competitions this year are on!

 There are 2 BIG news items I want to highlight:

1. The competitions and their deadlines have been spread throughout the year, in order to avoid the bottling up of deadlines that usually occur in April—which is, for many a tough time to be making recordings and getting recommendation.  My hope is that spreading the deadlines out will enable horn players to keep the competitions separate and unique, and allow everyone the chance to plan which competitions you’d like to enter.  We will be naming the winner of each competition usually within a month of the entry deadline, and celebrating each winner via announcements on the IHS page as well as social media outlets.
2. We’ve adjusted the repertoire requirements, primarily due to the pandemic’s effect on making recordings with pianists due to social distancing. So, look for more options to play unaccompanied solos, as well as allowing for solos that usually require collaboration to be played sans piano, AND look for a few new repertoire changes!

Though the deadline for the Barry Tuckwell scholarship application has passed (December 1), the rest of the competition deadlines are still coming up! 

• January 1: Mansur Award (essay/letter only--no recording)
• February 1: Frizzelle Orchestral Excerpt Competition (includes recordings) completely online this year!
• March 1: Hawkins (includes recordings) - virtual
• April 1: Premiere Soloist competition with a deadline virtual preliminary, and the live finals round which will be part of the online IHS 53 next summer!

More details to come regarding the Premiere Soloist competition, as new repertoire is being discussed right now.

So get your horns out, start looking at repertoire to record and check out the IHS website for specific information about all of the scholarships competitions at https://www.hornsociety.org/about-the-ihs/scholarships

Solicited and Introduced by Mike Harcrow

This is assuredly one of the most bizarre seasons any of us has experienced. Many musicians have suffered untold losses because of the global pandemic. What is so encouraging through all of this, however, is the resourcefulness of friends and colleagues in stretching themselves to remain creative, to learn new skills to facilitate their creativity, and to proudly and expertly display these newly-acquired skills in inspiring projects (performed on balconies, in front yards, on YouTube, in social media outlets, etc.) while negotiating cancelled seasons, taking on other full- or part-time jobs, home-schooling children, watching savings disappear, and enduring a great host of other challenges.

While I know there are so many of you doing this very thing, I asked a few of our wonderful colleagues who are in some way reinventing themselves to share their thoughts and experiences by responding to any or all of the following prompts:

• How are you diversifying or bolstering your musical skill sets for the future due to current orchestra closures and performance cancellations?
• What secondary skills are you honing or exploiting?
• Have you taken on another job to maintain an income? If so, what?
• What hobbies or new interests—music-related or not—are generating income for you?

I am grateful to each of our contributors for giving us a little insight into their personal struggles and victories. Let us continue...

Notes from Big Sky Country

I first joined the International Horn Society when I was a student in college. Receiving my first issue of The Horn Call was such an eye-opening experience, realizing how many other horn players there truly were in the world. I had heard of the IHS when studying with founder, Bill Robinson, in high school, but it was when I became a member that I suddenly understood what the IHS did for me and for all of us. It connects us to something greater, an entire community. When I came to Montana five years ago, I was surprised to find an already thriving community of hornists.

Now that I am the IHS Area Representative in Montana, I hope to build and strengthen that community of hornists, of which many of you are probably unaware. We are a state with seven regional orchestras, highly skilled performers, and the perfect training grounds for our future orchestral and military band performers and music educators. 

During the pandemic, our orchestras have continued to record concerts, without audiences, and publish them on MTPR, PBS, and YouTube amongst others. Our state universities have continued creating experiences through online masterclasses and competitions across the country. A sophomore student at the University of Montana won an intercollegiate mock audition competition against four other institutions nationally. The community band in Missoula gave concerts outdoors during summer 2020 to audiences blocked for contact tracing. In addition to teaching at UM, I presented at the IHS Virtual Workshop and worked with my colleagues of the Northwest Horn Society to start a podcast for our members in the region. A UM grad also serves on the board of the NwHS and recently moved to Washington state to finish her student teaching. These are just a few examples of what we are all doing in Montana.

In such a strange time when we have lost many opportunities to engage with others, our horn community has worked to educate and perform and, perhaps most importantly, remain relevant.

English version

좋은 연주를 위한 몇 가지 잊기 쉬운 간단한 조언들

1. 키를 누를 때 불필요하게 높이 움직이는 왼손가락
   여러 해 동안 학생들을 가르쳐 오면서 왼손가락을 필요이상 높이 많이 움직이는 학생들을 보아왔는데, 그 중 많은 수의 학생들은 왼손으로부터 시작해서 온 몸이 경직되어 빠른 패시지의 연주는 물론 호흡까지도 힘들게 되어 혀의 텅깅과 손가락이 조화가 안되어 어려움을 겪는 경우를 보아왔다.  그런 학생들에게 스케일을 아주 천천히 슬러로 연습하며 왼손이 항상 키에 붙어서 움직이도록, 마치 피아노 연주자가 올바른 손 자세로 피아노를 연주하듯이, 하여 편하게 숙달되게 되었을 때 학생들의 연주가 많이 유연해지고 호흡도 많이 향상되는 것을 보아왔다
   본인도 유학시절 레이놀즈 선생님께 같은 지적을 받았으며 심지어 느린 스케일을 왼손가락을 키에 테이프로 고정시켜 안정될 때까지 연습을 하여 몸의 경직완화와 편안한 호흡까지도 얻게 되었던 경험이 있었다.
2. 귀에 들리는 본인의 거친 연주소리에 익숙하자
   .호른의 가장 멋진 매력은 아름다운 소리라고 생각한다.  일반적으로 많은 학생들은 자기 귀에 들리는 본인의 거친 소리보다는 오른손으로 막아 부드러워진 소리를 듣기 원한다.  그것은 마치 청중이 호른소리가 무대 벽과 또 연주회장 벽 및 바닥에 반사되고 흡수되어 부드러워진 소리를 듣듯이 본인의 소리를 일찍 부드럽게 만들어 연주한다는 것이다. 본인의 연주소리가 본인 귀에 거칠게 들릴 때 청중들은 좋은 부드러운 소리로 들릴 것 이며 본인 귀에 부드럽게 들릴 때 청중은 이미 답답한 소리를 듣고 있을 것 이다.
3. 메트로놈과 녹음기를 유용하자
   메트로놈과 녹음기는 음악가들에게 가장 좋은 선생님이라 생각한다.
   학창시절 내가 새로운 곡을 연습하며 해결 못하는 어려움에 처했을 때 메트로놈으로 느리게 연습해 어려웠던 곡도 이해하고 또 성공적인 연주를 했던 기억이 있다. 우리는 가끔 선배 음악가들이 즐겨 사용했던 메트로놈과 같은 유용한 도구의 사용을 잊곤 한다.  그와 마찬가지로 연주 전에 녹음을 해서 들어보면 음정이 불안한 곳 또 템포가 흔들리는 부분들을 알게 되고 그런 부분들을 시정하여 더 좋은 연주를 할 수 있게 된다.

한번은 이스트만 음악학교의 얀치치 교수께 렛슨을 받던 중 선생님께서 “영률 이 렛슨비로 녹음기를 사서 녹음을 듣고 연습하면 일년 내내 좋은 렛슨을 받을 수 있을거야”라고 하신 말씀이 생각난다.
호른을 사랑하는 모든 학생들, 연주자들이 우리의 이 멋진 악기 “Horn”을 즐기면 연주하기를 바랍니다.                                           서울대학교 음악대학 교수 김영률