by Sarah Willis, IHS 55 Featured Artist

Dear horn friends around the world,

I am so happy to let you know that the sheet music to Cuban Dances, the first ever Cuban concerto for horn, has just been published!

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/z8SW2ezO7uE

Following the success of our first album Mozart y Mambo, I decided to commission a new horn piece for album 2, and I found six talented young Cuban composers to write it for me. With Cuban Dances, we have created a musical map of Cuba and its musical heritage in six movements from six different parts of Cuba. The result is a fresh and modern adaptation of Cuba’s most well-known dances—and it is the first time any of the composers have written for French horn!

Preparing and playing these dances—Son, Danzón, Guaguancó, Bolero, Chachachá, and Changüí—has been one of my greatest challenges to date. It’s not just the tricky technical horn playing but also because my Cuban friends told me, “If you can’t dance them, you can’t play them.” So dance them I did! We spent a long time preparing the sheet music, because many of these rhythms are simply not usually notated by the Cubans—they just instinctively know how to play them. The composers had to learn not only how to write down these rhythms for horn but also what the horn is capable of…and what it isn’t!

Nothing would make me happier than knowing that horn players around the world, like you, will discover and fall in love with Cuban music through Cuban Dances like I did. These dances are SO much fun to play, both with string orchestra and also in the chamber music version, and you can play the whole suite or mix and match the movements however you want. The proceeds of the sheet music go...

In memory of Barbara Chinworth, the International Horn Society has been gifted a significant donation to fund a program to provide resources to amateur horn players/enthusiasts. Barbara was a do-er, putting words into action in the form of gathering hornists of all walks of life to play together, enjoy fellowship, and support each other in their mutual love of horn.

We are still working out the details and want to hear from you. How would support from this program be most meaningful to you? We are asking you to participate in a survey to help us get started in meeting a need in our organization: to engage more with our non-professional and non-student members.

Ideas include:

We want to hear from you! Please fill out our survey at https://bit.ly/chinworth-survey or scan the QR code: 

If you would like to contribute to this fund, you can do so in multiple ways! If you would like to

English version

por Gabriella Ibarra, Liber Oscher y José José Gimenez 

Con gran emoción los cornistas venezolanos recibieron y disfrutaron de la presencia de la singular y muy querida Sarah Willis. En su primera visita al país, Sarah estuvo trabajando con los chicos del Sistema Nacional de Orquestas y como venezolana me complace enormemente saber que la Escuela Nacional de Corno en Venezuela se mantiene en pie, dedicada con amor y excelencia a la formación continua de las nuevas generaciones de cornistas. Con orgullo aplaudo de pie la labor de todos los talleristas y profesores, pero en especial reconozco y agradezco el esfuerzo de los maestros Liber Oscher y José José Gimenez quienes además nos han brindado una breve reseña de tal evento, gracias!

En el marco de las celebraciones por el 47 aniversario de El Sistema, Caracas recibe a una de las celebridades más reconocidas del mundo de la música clásica. Se trata de Sarah Willis, cornista de la Orquesta Filarmónica de Berlín, y una figura notable en el mundo del periodismo musical. En su canal de Youtube, recibe miles de vistas en el mundo entero gracias a sus Hangouts, un programa de entrevistas a personalidades del mundo de la música. 

La noticia de la llegada de Sarah a Caracas tomó al Centro de Acción Social para la Música por sorpresa, noticia recibida con desbordante entusiasmo por su fanaticada de El Sistema: aquéllos quienes ya habían compartido con ella durante el evento "Encuentros" con Gustavo Dudamel en Los Ángeles, así como también aquellos que anhelaban conocerla en persona algún día. 

Su visita tenía un objetivo especial: darles un regalo a la nueva generación de jóvenes cornistas de la Sinfónica Nacional Infantil de Venezuela, trabajando...

by Heidi Lucas

At the outset, Eastern Standard—a trio comprised of horn, tuba, and piano—focused on commissioning smaller “character” pieces, asking composers to write works around 5 minutes in duration in order to expand the breadth of the repertoire. The ensemble left details entirely up to the composers, and the resulting works were diverse, creative, and highly versatile, allowing for variety in programming. A few years later, the group shifted their commissioning focus to works which were more substantial, pieces which could be the cornerstone of a recital program. In 2017, they won a grant from the IHS Meir Rimon Commissioning Assistance Fund to support the composition of a multi-movement work by composer Octavio Vasquez entitled What a Circus! Eastern Standard had collaborated previously with Vasquez on a shorter work, Winter Train, which was recorded for their second album. In 2019, the group launched their annual Composition Contest which provides cash prizes as well as performance and recording opportunities to the winners each year.

Eastern Standard’s most recent focus has been on outreach. In 2022 they were awarded a grant from the Jessie B. DuPont Fund through the University of Delaware Partnership for Arts and Culture to support the composition of a new work by Robert Litton. A Grand Day Out for horn, tuba, piano, narrator, and collaborators was premiered during their fall 2022 tour. Upcoming plans include commissions of works for the trio alongside ensembles of varying configurations and levels, and including opportunities for the audience to participate in order to create performances with “no passive seats.”

Below is a listing of works commissioned by Eastern Standard, including upcoming anticipated premieres:

2024
4 Works for Eastern Standard and level 2 band (4 composers including Carol Brittin Chambers, Larry Clark, 2 additional TBA)
Premiere TBA

2023
Work for Eastern Standard and level 4 band...

by Jeff Nelsen and Katy Carnaggio

It’s well into the third hour of podcast recording. “Are you ready?” Jeff asks, fanning his shirt under a heavy blanket that’s tented over his head to dampen room noise. “Yeah,” Katy responds, shifting on the floor of her closet a thousand miles away. “Just give me a sec…my foot’s asleep!” 

Stiff limbs, sweaty necks, and scrappy set-ups aside, we had an AMAZING time recording the first episodes of our podcast—because when you keep your why front-and-center, everything else falls away. 

When it comes to being a musician, continuing to develop isn’t easy. The path through the unusual situations in which we can find ourselves isn’t always clear. We can guarantee that you are going to face some tough things on your journey. At some point, you might even wonder, “Am I good enough to do this?” 

First and foremost, yes: You are good enough.  

Surround yourself with people who will remind you of that when you start to doubt yourself. However, ultimately, it’s on you to know and believe in yourself. 

Knowing and believing doesn’t have to mean feeling it all the time or even acting on it all the time. We’re looking for a healthy 51%, meaning that you’ve just got to believe in yourself a little more than you doubt.

Belief gets you taking your next step. Then, your why can swoop in and carry you through! 

Your why is everything when it comes to practicing effectively and performing through hardship. Whether it’s the music, or reverence for the incredible sound of the horn, or the thrill of sculpting emotion in real-time for your audience, or….  Your why will always be louder and more powerful than your worries.  

Did you hear us on that?  

Your why, when you get clear on it, is going to be louder than your worries.  

It certainly was for us when we were thinking of you while recording...

by Austris Apenis

Congratulations on your new post at the LPO! Has your life changed since the big announcement?

Thank you! Yes, definitely. I have a full-time job now, so obviously my day-to-day life has automatically changed. Having done a bit of orchestral freelancing in the UK, it’s very nice to now go somewhere regularly.

Fantastic! Let’s go back to the beginning. When did you start playing the horn, and why did you choose this instrument?

I started the horn when I was seven, about half a year after starting the piano. Apparently, I was a very loud baby, so I was told my strong lungs would lend themselves well to a wind instrument. There was a brass dectet in Cambridge, where I grew up, who often did family concerts that we would attend, and I think I just liked the look of the horn!

Do you come from a musical family?

Yes, my dad actually studied the violin. He became a biologist instead, but he still plays the violin as a hobby, and so does my mum. Because of this, I always had music around me when I was growing up, so it felt very natural for me to start learning an instrument.

Do you often play together?

We do, at least in the little horn-and-strings repertoire there is. I remember reading through the Mozart horn quintet with them at a very young age, so it was a good way to get to know the repertoire.

Which are your favorite horn pieces?

Orchestrally, it would have to be either Strauss’s Rosenkavalier Suite or Mahler’s Symphony No. 9. These probably seem like very stereotypical choices of composer for a horn player, but they’re both pieces that I don’t think I could ever get bored of playing or listening to. In terms of solo repertoire, at the moment I would probably choose Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings.

I see that you have played a lot in youth orchestras. What was your experience there, and what did you learn from it?

I joined local youth orchestras...

by Caiti Beth McKinney

Hello everyone!

This month, I want to talk about a composer who, while having a limited repertoire for the horn, deserves more of our attention. Zenobia Powell Perry was born in 1908 in Boley, Oklahoma, a town founded in 1905 by Black people who had been formerly enslaved, as well as people from the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. There can be no doubt that Powell Perry’s heritage and upbringing influenced her music and her career. Her grandfather, who had been enslaved and later freed, taught the young Zenobia spirituals and songs that would have a noticeable impact on her compositions. During her collegiate studies at the historically Black Tuskegee Institute, Powell Perry was encouraged to compose by William L. Dawson, a renowned composer in his own right. As a result, Powell Perry attended the University of Wyoming to complete her master’s in composition, where she received instruction from Darius Milhaud (a member of Le Six) and Allan Arthur William. Zenobia was incredibly active in uplifting her community. For example, she worked closely with Eleanor Roosevelt (who would become one of her dear mentors and friends) to facilitate a program for training Black teachers. She was also active in the Civil Rights Movement.

Zenobia Powell Perry composed two pieces which feature the horn: Elegy for clarinet, two horns, and two bassoons, and Three Pieces for Horn and Piano, written between 1973 and 1983. The first movement of the three, Prelude, is tuneful and song-like, evoking the human voice in the horn line. Episode I, on the other hand, is bold and declarative, which demands an entirely different tone color from the horn player. Episode II, marked “Lively,” is just that—a joyful, metrically-shifting romp for the performers, culminating in a cadenza that offers horn players the chance to show off their virtuosity. Please enjoy it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1ImDPbR8gY

If you’re interested,...

by Ursula Paludan Monberg, IHS 55 Featured Artist

I play both the double horn and the natural horn, but I specialize in natural horn, which I teach at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. I also teach private students at all levels, even young horn players (my youngest student now is just 10 years old).

I am the Principal Horn of the English Concert, and in that ensemble, I am frequently called on to play many high notes on the Baroque horn. I find that my students, probably like most horn players, have a “fear of heights.” That high A just looks high on the staff. The way a high note looks on the page can be enough to bring on the fear reaction.

I often use the natural horn with my students as a way to dispel that fear. Here’s how it works, followed by an adaptation for valved horn.

I’ll put a long crook on the natural horn, perhaps an E♭ crook. Then I’ll have the student play, with me (this is important: safety in numbers), a rising sequence up the partials. Perhaps we will play written E-G-B♭-C-D-E (this final E sounds like a D toward the top of the treble clef—I am naming notes on the F horn). This sequence covers the range of one octave.

We play this sequence by ear; it is not written down. Next, we can play the same sequence of notes on the F crook. We are now hitting high E (top of the staff), even though the pattern we are playing is exactly the same as the pattern we had just played a whole step lower. Swap crooks for the G crook, and our top note becomes F♯, but—and this is important—it is still the exact same pattern. Swap again for the A crook, and we reach a G♯. With a B♭ (alto) crook, we’re hitting a high A.

I find that students doing this exercise with me will hit that high A with confidence and ease. When I tell them what note they actually played, they don’t believe it; I’ll often have to prove it to them by playing it on the piano.

The deeper point here is to go with the...

Dear fellow horn players,

The Université de Montréal is a French-language public research university and one of Canada’s largest educational institutions. It has been around for more than 135 years, and we are looking forward to calling its Faculty of Music and the Salle Claude-Champagne home next summer for the 55th International Horn Symposium.

Founded on October 18, 1950, the Faculty of Music is recognized as the largest francophone educational establishment for music in North America. Its fame has traveled far beyond the borders of the continent thanks to the remarkable achievements of its teachers, its student community, and its graduates.

Promoting a variety of approaches and interchanges among disciplines in a spirit of collaboration, the Faculty offers students innovative programs which allow them to develop in the professional environment of today, to enjoy the career to which they aspire, and to heighten their impact in the world.

With its vast network of prestigious international partners, the Faculty is a setting for ground-breaking creation and research. Its teaching staff, which brings together performers, composers, and musicologists, along with recognized researchers, cultivates two essential qualities: the readiness to offer students personalized guidance, and an eagerness to involve them in research projects and outreach activities.

A stimulating learning environment where individuals, traditions, and styles all enrich one another, the Faculty also plays host to a number of organizations-in-residence, including the École LUMI, the Canada Research Chair in Music and Politics, the Canada Research Chair in Opera Creation, research and creative-research laboratories, and the OICRM, a strategic cluster dedicated to the support of research.

A true spawning ground for talent, the Faculty showcases its students by presenting numerous events each year, notably at Salle Claude-Champagne, a crossroads for dissemination...