President's Blog
Challenges
Our lives are full of challenges. Challenges can involve striving for improvement and betterment, in life or as musicians, and they are an important part of giving us incentives and goals to work towards. I have a particular challenge and a specific goal this year.
Playing for Fun
The Horn Call is the magazine for all members of the IHS – which are from all walks of life, a good many of them community musicians; i.e., amateurs. I was therefore surprised to hear from someone recently expressing their concerns as to how little in The Horn Call is for amateur horn players – "It's mainly for students and professionals, isn't it?" The last issue even has an article called "Amateur Sessions" on this very subject.
IHS's New Acquisition
We (IHS) have an exciting new acquisition – we have taken over the administration of the hornplayer.net website, which for years has been the first stop-off point for anyone interested in buying or selling a horn. We sincerely thank Robin Moffatt for his years managing that site, and we look forward to continuing this important service largely unchanged, but now naturally incorporated into the IHS website. The platform still offers an important first point of contact for buyers and sellers of instruments, and I encourage you to tell anyone you know who might be considering acquiring or selling an instrument to take a look there first.
Welcome to the May Issue
As I enter Washington State to attend the Northwest Horn Symposium at the Central Washington University in Ellensburg, hosted by Jeff Snedeker, I think back on the very first workshop I attended, and the significance it had on my own career
It was in Montreaux, Switzerland, in 1976; I was invited to attend by Paxman’s to demonstrate their instruments. All the in great players of the day were there: Barry Tuckwell, Herman Baumann, Peter Damm, Gerd Seifert, Frøydis Ree Wekre, to name but a few. I had recordings of all these people, as they were at the very top of their profession and, like many young players, I aspired to play like them. To be among such distinguished guests was a great thrill at the time, although I was not to know how it would influence my own career. It was Barry Tuckwell who, after hearing me play, got me an impromptu spot in the programme to perform Bach’s Badinerie for horn quartet. The quartet was me, Peter Damm, Ib Lanskey Otto, and Frøydis (if I am not mistaken - it was a long time ago!). This opportunity gave me the chance to play for hundreds of people, which spawned other invitations to attend other workshops – and then others – and so it went.
Welcome to the New Year
It might not be "New Year" any more, and most people have probably already broken their New Year's resolutions (easy for me – I didn't make any!), and got over the guilt after all the overindulgence of the Christmas festivities. The Christmas season brings us in touch with family and friends – some of whom we see only at this time of year.
Unfortunately, much of this communication has become strangely detached from reality – people request to be "friends" on Facebook without a word of introduction or any reason for wanting to become "friends"!Communication has become especially easy these days, with high-speed internet connections, and with the social networking of Facebook and Twitter, we are communicating a lot more, and a lot faster than we used to.