Click to subscribe
IHS Latest News
News
Final Symposium Update
It is 72 degrees and cloudy today in Denton with an overnight low expected to be 64. Given that weather generally follows a seven-day cycle, let's keep our fingers crossed. While the registrations keep coming in, the dorm still has plenty of single and double rooms available. The dorm cafeteria is large and full of natural lighting. Meals are $7 each and can be purchased for the week or in any number on a "swipe card." The Symposium artists and IHS Advisory Council will be eating lunch and dinner in the dorm so that you have the opportunity to visit with them. Lunch-time entertainment will be provided by university horn choirs.'
If you intend to buy a banquet/barbecue ticket for Thursday evening please do so before 4 pm on May 14. We have to turn in banquet numbers at 4 pm and for every added person after that we are charged $5 extra. So the $16 ticket will go up to $21 after 4 pm Monday (no exceptions). There will be 2 buffet tables at the banquet: 1) barbecue and 2) fajitas (make your own). Some awards will be handed out at the banquet and Dennis Brain's birthday will be celebrated by playing recordings of a few of his live performances.
See you soon.
Three Weeks to Go!
It's less than three weeks to Symposium 44 which is being hosted by Bill Scharnberg from May 15 - 19 (with registration on the 14th) at the University of North Texas College of Music. About 300 have already preregistered and we expect to see many more of you who'll be registering on site. If you haven't done so already, you can get details of the Symposium by going to its website http://music.unt.edu/ihs44/ Because of conflicts in some of the participant's schedules, there are some changes from the previously announced program. Here is an update of some of the featured performances. You'll note that one of the changes in Thursday's program is that Barry Tuckwell will conduct the UNT Symphony Orchestra and soloists in, among other works, Schumann's Konzertstück.
Among the participating organizations and hornists on Tuesday will be the UNT Wind Symphony and Jennifer Montone, Geoffrey Winter, and Bernhard Scully. ON Wednesday evening, a concert of Baroque music featuring Andrew Clark, Steve Denroche, Paul Hopkins, and Bruce Atwell. Thursday evening will present the Symposium Orchestra conducted by Barry Tuckwell and featuring David Thompson, Zach Glavan, Gail Williams, Tsun Tak Cheung, Greg Hustis, Joseph Ognibene, John Ericson, and Randy Gardner. The Friday evening concert will present UNT's internationally known One O'Clock Lab Band with Arkady Shilkloper and Thomas Bacon and will end with Stan Kenton charts with 8 horns. Saturday is "Long Horn" Day (Texas Horn Fest and Alphorn Festspiel) (Go to http://music.unt.edu/ihs44/ and click on Texas Horn Fest for details. Saturday will also present something unique. We hope to gather as many as 1,000 hornists at UNT. The purpose of this is to get us into the Guinness World Book of Records for the largest number of hornists at one performance. Jasper Rees, who many of you know as the author of "I Found My Horn" (UK) or "A Devil to Play" (US) is flying in from London as the official witness for the record book. See more details at http://www.onethousandhorns.com/about/
New Kerry Turner Piece in OML
"Cortejo" for brass quintet by Kerry Turner has been added to the IHS Online Music Library.
The word "cortejo" means cortege or funeral procession in Spanish. A passacaglia is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used by contemporary composers. It is usually of a serious character and is often, but not always, based on a bass-ostinato. It was however in contemplating the meaning of the word "passacaglia"- pasar (to walk) and calle (street), that the composer drew upon the idea to incorporate the old U.S. Western folksong "Cowboys Lament" or "As I walked out on the streets of Laredo."
The story of this folksong is about a young and handsome cowboy in the old Texas-Mexican border town of Laredo, who after a night of wild living and drunkenness, gets shot in the chest, and wrapped in white linen, is paraded through the streets. The locals would have called it a "Cortejo" (pronounced korteho.)
The piece begins with a characteristically tragic passacaglia theme, which is heard in some shape or form almost throughout the entire work. The "Cowboys Lament" is subtly introduced in the stopped horn. The secondary theme arrives after the fourth repetition of the passacaglia theme, and is declamatory in nature. This sets the stage for the adventurous third section of the piece marked "allegro vivo." At this point in the work, the listener may draw on his or her imagination to create the scenario, which leads to the cowboy's death. The various themes and motives are woven together to create a sort of narrative, the climax of which is the dramatic and bitter cortege- cortejo.
"As I walked out on the streets of Laredo. As I walked out in Laredo one day, I spied a young cowboy, so young and so handsome, wrapped up in white linen and cold as the grave." (first verse of "The Cowboy's Lament".)
"Cortejo" was commissioned by the Ni Ensemble, with a grant from the Ministry of Culture of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, and was composed in September 2011.
International Horn Symposium 44 Update
Gunther Schuller realized recently that he had double-booked himself for the week of the Symposium – the annual meeting of the Koussevitzky Foundation is that week in New York City and he is the President of the foundation. Although this was quite a set back, with great pleasure I announce that Barry Tuckwell has agreed to conduct the Symposium Orchestra (and perhaps the Guiness Book of Records horn ensemble on Saturday, May 19).
Local horn repairman and merchant, Dennis Houghton, with funding from Pender’s Music, the largest sheet music store in Texas (located in Denton), has ordered 1200 bandanas with IHS, UNT, and Guiness logos for the Saturday event. Jasper Rees (author of A Devil to Play) will be at the Symposium to serve as the Guiness witness.
Two of our original aritsts (Andrew Bain and Xiaoming Han) had to cancel due to scheduling conflicts that arose, and Pip Eastop later withdrew for good reasons. Very fortunately horn virtuoso Tsun Tak Cheung from Hong Kong, now working in Germany, has agreed to appear as a featured artist.
If you plan to fly to Dallas (either DFW or Love Field) please email your arrival and departure schedule to Bill Scharnberg ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) to be placed on a list for shuttle pick up. While we cannot guarantee the shuttle will be exactly on time, every attempt will be made to transport you to and from Denton in a timely manner.
A gallon of gas is still less than a gallon of milk in Texas and you wouldn't know there were economic problems in the US by looking at the restaurant parking lots in Dallas on the weekends! Ya hoo!
Bill Scharnberg