by Lene Aadalen Skomedal

My name is Lene Skomedal. I am a Norwegian horn player, living in Gothenburg, Sweden. Some years ago I also became a yoga teacher. For me the most interesting thing is that I can do positions that affect my body and calm down and focus my brain! Even if yoga is a very old tradition, I would absolutely say that I am a modern yogi, and I only practice to music. Some of you might have been to my Yoga for Musicians workshop at the IHS 51 symposium in Ghent. As a horn player, yoga has of helped me a lot to find a better posture, which also means almost two liters more air capacity, less pain, less tension and a stronger body and mind. This is what I want every musician to experience, and it is never too late to start!

IHS 52
We had huge plans for IHS 52 in Oregon. I was going to perform a brand new solo piece, and I was also going to give a lot of different yoga sessions. We were planning a "Practice Room" lecture, an evening session on how to calm down after a late rehearsal/gig, three different energizing morning classes, a longer, powerful and more advanced workshop, a fun session for the junior seminar and on the last day - a public Yoga Concert. In this concert I was going to guide an outdoor yoga session, and YOU, different horn ensembles from the symposium were going to play the music! I was going to make connections to the music and the people behind it. My plan was that you could sign up for this during the seminar, and then...

Kristina Mascher-Turner: Renee, your fascination with historical instruments, particularly the natural horn, goes back at least as far as your studies in Stuttgart with Hermann Baumann. Can you take us back a little further and tell us what first drew your attention in this direction?

Renee Allen: After my Bachelor’s studies at the University of McGill in Montreal, I heard a recording of the Mozart Grand Partita played on period instruments. I was blown away by the sound of the horns in Bb basso and the blend with the woodwinds. At that time, I was hired for a season in the Quebec Symphony orchestra and the solo horn player there was interested in the natural horn, so we got together and performed Mozart Divertimenti and Telemann’s Tafelmusik with gut strings. This was in the late 70’s. I had an Alexander large hooped natural horn with a modern leadpipe and bell. To transpose down to D, one added tubes to the tuning slide that pushed into one’s cheek when playing - not ideal, but enough to get me hooked!

KMT: When you finished your studies, was there a point at which you felt compelled to choose between a career in performance and other pursuits? What was/is the viability of making a living playing instruments other than the modern horn?

RA: I came to study natural horn with Hermann Baumann in 1981 because of his recent recording of the Mozart horn concertos on the natural horn. There were no study programs...

English version

Über die Aerosol-Studie der Bamberger Symphoniker bei Bläsern und deren Auswirkung für die Wiederaufnahme des Spielbetriebs der Orchester

von Christoph Eß

Ich war gerade mit meinem Hornquartett german hornsound in Süddeutschland unterwegs zu sechs Konzerten, für die wir Anfang März 2020 eingeladen waren, als eine allgemeine Absagewelle zunächst alle öffentlichen Großveranstaltungen betraf und relativ schnell zu einem kompletten Lockdown führte. Schuld daran ist und war ein nicht ganz unbekanntes Sars-Virus, der sich durch eine vermutlich in China ausgelöste Mutation unter dem Namen SARS-CoV-2, oder kurz Corona-Virus, ausbreitete. Das Problem ist, dass das Virus und die damit verbundene Krankheit COVID-19 vor allem bei Risikogruppen (älteren und gesundheitlich vorbelasteten Menschen) zu einem sehr schweren bis hin zu tödlichem Verlauf führen kann. Auch wenn die WHO sowie Virologen auf der ganzen Welt nach Medikamenten, Impfstoffen und zunächst vor allem nach Informationen über das mutierte Virus suchen und forschen, war ein weltweiter wirtschaftlicher und sozialer Lockdown aus Sicht der Regierungen unausweichlich, da der Schutz des Lebens über allem stehen muss.

In den ersten vier Wochen dieses Lockdowns war eine große weltweite Solidarität zu spüren. Überall wurde der Hashtag #stayhome gelebt. Die Infektionszahlen sowie die Mortalitätsrate, zumindest in Deutschland und vielen europäischen Ländern, sind glücklicherweise...

by Larry Willams

Greetings!

I would like to share a new and exciting project that I have been working on with all of you. I have been teaching horn for over 25 years now both privately and at several music schools including the Peabody Institute and Florida International University. In addition to teaching horn, I perform with several orchestras and chamber ensembles and conduct masterclasses as a Yamaha Performing Artist & Clinician. I have wanted to expand my reach as an educator for some time now, and have just launched DMV Horn Academy.

DMV Horn Academy is a center for innovative teaching and mentoring for horn players who want to grow musically and personally while being a member of a positive and supportive community of learners, teachers, and performers. The academy offers horn lessons to students of all levels of experience in the DC, Maryland, Virginia (DMV) region in the US. Online lessons are also available. In addition to lessons, the academy will host a series of Masterclasses, Workshops and Seminars throughout the year. These offerings will take place at colleges, universities, conservatories, and schools across the US and online as well.

I’m really excited about launching this new model. It is not a formal school. Rather, it is a hub for hornists who are interested in growing musically in a supportive and inclusive community of students, teachers, and clinicians.

I am equally pleased that joining me on the faculty are Amanda...

Obviously, the cancellation of IHS 52 is disappointing at many levels. In an effort to provide an opportunity to share information that would have been a part of IHS 52, the IHS Advisory Council has approved our first-ever Virtual Workshop!

This workshop will be limited to presentations that were accepted for IHS 52, and the result will be a collection of videos that will be launched on August 2, 2020, the same day as we would all have been able to enjoy them in Eugene.  All presenters have been invited to participate, and most of them have agreed!

IHS members can look forward to video sessions on mental health, physical health, horn pedagogy, career issues, and a range of research topics from historical instruments and performing practices to women brass players…FOR FREE!  This virtual workshop will be free to all current members.  If you are not currently a member, join NOW.

This Virtual Workshop will be available to members for several months and will serve as part of a new planned collection of educational resources on the IHS website.  Stay tuned for more updates, and a message will go out to all members announcing the start of our first virtual workshop.

Jeffrey Snedeker, curator
IHS Virtual Workshop 2020

arranged for 11 horns and performed by TJ Viola

Thomas “TJ” Viola is a horn player from the Northern New Jersey area who is a student of Michelle Baker and Amy Emelianoff. He is currently a Senior at West Essex High School located in North Caldwell, New Jersey.

TJ has recently graduated from the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College as a French Horn Major and has also finished his last season with the New Jersey Youth Symphony. Aside from that, he has also been a member of the New Jersey All State Band and Orchestral Ensembles for the past 3 years, and has previously been a substitute for the NJSO Academy Orchestra, the All North Jersey Region Orchestra, and the Livingston Symphony Orchestra.

TJ will be pursuing his musical studies next year at the Manhattan School of Music, where he will continue studying with Michelle Baker, working towards a Bachelor of Music in Classical Horn.

by Klayton Schaefer

In May of 2020, I was fortunate enough to graduate with my master’s degree from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as a student of Denise Tryon. The two years I spent working on this degree were both incredibly challenging and extremely rewarding. In March, like almost every college in the United States, all instruction at CCM moved to distance learning due to the Covid-19 global pandemic. This shift offered up some new and exciting challenges and completely changed every part of my time at school. I had no idea going into it how much this pandemic would change everything I considered to be normal.

At the start of the pandemic, many of my colleagues and I felt overwhelmed by all the drastic changes and measures being taken. When schools started to announce their closures, my entire campus community rushed to retrieve their belongings from lockers and studios not knowing if we would have the chance to return. I tried to remain positive that things would be okay, but being so unsure of the future created a great deal of anxiety. I was sad no longer to have the opportunity to attend my private lessons and classes, perform and work with my colleagues, and go to the numerous events on campus. However, I was comforted to know the school administration and faculty were doing everything that could be done to continue our education as safely as possible.

Going into the pandemic, I was extremely lucky to be living with two fellow CCM...

by Kerry Turner

Recently, during the deepest part of the Covid19 lockdown, a close friend of mine had a small breakdown. It’s not unexpected that this happened. I believe most of us have experienced a similar type of thing. I’m talking about this bizarre dilemma we find ourselves in when it comes to practicing our instrument during this terrible time in 2020. We unpack our horns, sit down and start warming up. We organise the music on our stands, choosing the various self-appointed projects that we have planned out. I mean, eventually this pandemic crisis will end, and things will slowly get back to normal, right? 

So there’s my friend, practicing religiously every day, even up to two hours in an afternoon, and that with no foreseeable opportunities to rehearse let alone perform any music whatsoever. After a couple of months of this, my friend, who has been very methodical, starts to really sound great. And then, of course, the reality hits- “When will I ever get to play my heart out in a concert again?” A hopeless feeling takes hold, mild panic and a sense of futility. 

And then I remembered my days in college. I so very much dreamed of being a grand soloist, travelling the world, performing the greatest concertos to packed halls. But I was young, naive and definitely at the bottom of the career ladder. There were really no opportunities to perform concertos with anybody. So what did I do? I plugged away at it anyway. I convinced myself,...

• Develop an ever-increasing network of colleagues among horn teachers, performers, and enthusiasts from all walks of life and from all around the world.
• Receive the IHS publication Horn Call three times a year.
• Broaden knowledge of horn history, pedagogy, literature, recordings, and equipment.
• Receive reduced registration fees for regional workshops and international symposia.
• Strengthen job security with a stronger annual evaluation portfolio through active involvement in the horn society, i.e. attending workshops/symposia, presenting at workshops/symposia, submitting articles to the Horn Call or e-newsletter, taking students to workshops/symposia, involving students in IHS sponsored events.
• Increase awareness of changing dynamics and expectations in the horn world for both the teacher/performer and the student.
• Increase awareness of new literature for the teacher and the student.
• Increase awareness of new equipment, equipment trends, equipment costs.
• Knowledge is power. The more you know, the better you teach. The better you teach, the stronger your horn studio. IHS and everything IHS offers is there to build this knowledge.

by Jennifer Sholtis, IHS Country Representative - USA

by Marc Lumley

It is 11:56 pm as I begin typing. I cannot remember the last time I hit the pillow before 1am and I’m enjoying every second of it. I am Marc Lumley and many people call me the founder of Horns United. Not so much, as we start each show I explain that this is a group effort, and without divine inspiration, we could not have done it. Done what? Established a fledgling multi-national charitable organization that showcases the finest hornists on the planet in masterclasses with students ranging from beginners to aspiring pros, all to raise money to donate to charities and hospitals that are providing Covid-19 relief. We hornists come from a hunting tradition and I, frankly, was tired of being the hunted. So what was I told to do?

Contact David Cooper! This was in late March when the shelter-in-place orders were about a week old. I asked David to do a Zoom masterclass, fully expecting to be graciously rejected, when I heard him say, “Sure Marc, what do you need?” With that, Horns United was born and has grown exponentially since. I reached out to more hornists around the world, and before I knew it we had a Dream Team. “The Section” is Michael Gast-Principal, Ellen Dinwiddie Smith-3rd, Minnesota, Scott Strong-3rd, Detroit, Peter Rubins-2nd, San Antonio, Robert Johnson-Associate, Houston, Kristy Morrell-2nd, LA Chamber, Benjamin Jaber-Principal, Douglas Hall-4th, San Diego, David Heyde-Associate and Acting Principal, Dallas, James Ferree-Principal,...

by John Lynsdale-Nock

The founding idea of Corniworld Publications was always about having great arrangements of horn music written by horn players in order to best show the versatility and capabilities of the instrument. The recent pandemic and lockdown restrictions around the world have meant that horn players have found themselves, like many others, in isolation and in need of musical projects to focus the mind.
Almost as soon as lockdowns were announced, it was great to see how musicians from around the globe were finding new ways to keep playing with the use of various apps and home recording equipment, producing music either as solo projects or with others. The internet has allowed musicians to collaborate, not just with colleagues, but with players from around the world. It has been incredible to see musicians adapt to this most unprecedented situation. With this in mind, I decided I wanted to contribute in some way within my musical field - the horn community. With just short of 250 horn arrangements in the catalogue I could have sinply advertised the Corniworld Publications website. Instead I decided to use the extra time I found myself with to produce some new horn quartet arrangements. With so many people facing employment difficulties, it seemed only right to offer these for free. Each day after supervising my two children's home schooling, completing my own online teaching timetable and horn practice, I would set up my laptop on the dining table to indulge...

by Lene Aadalen Skomedal

My name is Lene Skomedal. I am a Norwegian horn player, living in Gothenburg, Sweden. Some years ago I also became a yoga teacher. For me the most interesting thing is that I can do positions that affect my body and calm down and focus my brain! Even if yoga is a very old tradition, I would absolutely say that I am a modern yogi, and I only practice to music. Some of you might have been to my Yoga for Musicians workshop at the IHS 51 symposium in Ghent. As a horn player, yoga has of helped me a lot to find a better posture, which also means almost two liters more air capacity, less pain, less tension and a stronger body and mind. This is what I want every musician to experience, and it is never too late to start!

IHS 52
We had huge plans for IHS 52 in Oregon. I was going to perform a brand new solo piece, and I was also going to give a lot of different yoga sessions. We were planning a "Practice Room" lecture, an evening session on how to calm down after a late rehearsal/gig, three different energizing morning classes, a longer, powerful and more advanced workshop, a fun session for the junior seminar and on the last day - a public Yoga Concert. In this concert I was going to guide an outdoor yoga session, and YOU, different horn ensembles from the symposium were going to play the music! I was going to make connections to the music and the people behind it. My plan was that you could sign up for this during the seminar, and then...