Walter Lawson is remembered for his warmth and caring as much as for the horns he built and repaired, and he led the way in research into what made horns sound beautiful. He contributed to the horn world in important ways and inspired many people with his energy, kindness, and creativity.

Lawson, the son of British parents, studied piano and horn as a youngster growing up in Binghamton NY. During World War II, he was a teletype mechanic for the Associated Press and served in the US Army Military Police and Signal Corps in the South Pacific. In 1947, he entered Peabody Conservatory, studying piano with Frederick Griesinger and horn with Jerry Knop and Ward Fearn. He was second horn in the Baltimore Symphony from 1949 to 1976. "He had an ability to match tone and intonation that was uncanny, and he made anyone he played with sound good and feel comfortable," says Bill Kendall, his lifelong friend, colleague in the Baltimore Symphony, and employee in the shop. "A true section player, he was always in 'support mode' on stage as well as off."

Lawson began working as an instrument repairman in 1949 at Ted's Musicians Shop and opened his own shop (Lawson Brass Instrument Repair Company) in 1956. His reputation as an expert repair technician and custom mouthpiece maker spread quickly, and many leading horn players sough his expertise and support. A fascination for improving horn mouthpieces led to his development of a mouthpiece kit with interchangeable rims, cups, throats, and back-bores that had over 12,000 possibilities! This allowed hornists to experiment and perfect a truly custom mouthpiece, which Walter would then produce. This led to studies of the lead-pipe, and by the early 1970s, Lawson was making custom pipes of his own design for installation on stock horns with great success. He then moved to investigating the properties of alloys and hardness of bell flares.

When he left the Baltimore Symphony, he moved to Boonsboro MD and in 1980 formed Lawson Brass Instruments with his sons Bruce, Duane, and Paul. Research and development of custom parts continued with modifications to existing instruments and production of the first Lawson horns in 1981. The Lawson Team continued to make acoustic and mechanical innovations, and the company thrived, producing many different models of double and descant horns as well as mouthpieces and custom parts.

The input of many professional players, including Barry Tuckwell (who lived nearby), was essential to their work, and Lawson equipment can now be found in the ranks of orchestras and on recital stages throughout the world, used by professionals, amateurs, and students alike. Walter Lawson retired in 2006 and the family sold the company to Kendall Betts, who carries on the Lawson tradition in New Hampshire.

Lawson exhibited his horns at international and regional workshops, often giving presentations that helped open communication between hornists and makers. He was a member of the IHS Advisory Council from 1977-1983 and elected an IHS Honorary Member in 2001. Tributes appear in the October 2007 issue of The Horn Call.

Ib Lanzky-Otto is known for his masterful technique, musicality, and exemplary tone, displayed during his long tenure with the Stockholm Philharmonic.

Ib was born in 1940 in Copenhagen, Denmark. His family lived in Iceland from 1946-1951 when his father, Wilhelm Lanzky-Otto (also an IHS Honorary Member), taught piano and horn at the Reykjavik Conservatory and was principal horn in the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Ib began studying horn with his father at the age of 16, and continued his studies at the Stockholm Royal Academy from 1957, still studying with his father.

In 1958, Ib became a regular member of the Royal Opera Orchestra in Stockholm. In 1961, he became co-principal horn of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, where his father was principal. He auditioned behind a screen and without his father on the jury. When his father stepped down to fourth horn in 1967, Ib took over as principal horn. Ib considers these years together with his father to have been of invaluable experience to him in his development as a horn player. He retired from the orchestra in 2007.

Swedish composers Gunnar de Frummerie, Åke Hermansson, Yngve Skjöld, and Sixten Sylvan have written solos and concertos for Ib. Ib made a number of recordings, some with his father at the piano.

As a soloist, Ib has played in all of the Nordic countries, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland, Canada, and the US. While never maintaining a regular teaching position, he has nevertheless frequently taught at summer courses and masterclasses throughout Europe and America, including the Paris Conservatory and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.

Frøydis Ree Wekre, soloist and pedagogue in Oslo, studied with Ib’s father starting in 1961; she met Ib then and they were friends for the rest of his life, serving as competition jurists together and recording the Friedrich Kuhlau double concerto with the Odense Symphony Orchestra in 1990. She recalls Ib’s beautiful and virtuosic playing, his inventive composing, and his humorous practical jokes.

Ib often performed at IHS symposiums. He was a member of the Royal Music Academy of Sweden, and an honorary member of the Icelandic Horn Club, the Norwegian Horn Club, and the IHS (elected in 2005).

photo courtesy of the Kumamoto Horn Ensemble, Takeshi Takahashi, Director

Kaoru Chiba was a leader of horn players and other musicians in Japan, a teacher to a generation of horn players, and revered for his beautiful singing style on the horn. He was affectionately known as "Bachi" by everyone and was famous for his warmth and humor, as a chef, and for his hospitality, inviting touring horn sections to parties at his home.

Bachi was born in 1928 in Beppu, Ohita Prefecture and grew up in Tokyo. Both his parents were graduates of Ueno Conservatory of Music. Bachi started on violin at age seven, but he didn't like its high sound. Entering junior high school in 1940, he encountered an alto horn.

Bachi failed his first entrance exam at the Tokyo Conservatory of Music – he told the story of being unable to write about a famous dramatic writer, Chikamatsu – but he passed the same exam a year later, in April 1945. Life changed in Japan after the end of World War II (August 1945), and Bachi took up guitar and jazz, earning money at the US Officer's Club in Tokyo.

Dr. Daigoro Arima, Secretary-General of the Nippon Symphony Orchestra (now the NHK Symphony Orchestra) invited Bachi to become an apprentice of the orchestra while studying at the Tokyo Conservatory with Professor Nagata. Bachi became a regular member of the orchestra when he graduated from the conservatory.

In the autumn of 1956, Bachi traveled to England and Germany to study. The first time he met Dennis Brain, at a recording session, Brain was very surprised to see him talking amiably with Karajan, who had been a guest conductor of the NHK orchestra two years before. Brain agreed to give Bachi lessons, but when Bachi returned from Germany, where he had studied with G. Neudecker and M. Strupp, he discovered in the newspaper that Brain had died in an automobile accident the night before. In 1966 von Karajan invited Bachi to the Berlin Philharmonic, but Bachi famously turned him down because, "In Berlin I can not find any fresh and delicious sushi."

His colleague Chiyo Matsubara recalls that Bachi started playing on a single F horn with the bell on his leg. But after he returned from England and Germany, he played an Alexander single B-flat horn with the bell off the leg. Many conductors praised his playing.

Bachi was principal horn of the NHK Symphony Orchestra for 36 years, until mandatory retirement age in 1983. In 1982, he received the first Arima Prize, given to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to the orchestra. After retiring, Bachi played in the New Japan Philharmonic (1983-1997).

Bachi taught at the Kunitachi Academy of Music, the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (formerly the Tokyo Conservatory of Music), Toho School of Music, Yamagata University, Japan University, and Nagoya Music University. He was also President of the Tokyo Horn Club and a member of the board of directors for both the Japan Federation of Musicians and Affinis Arts Foundation. In 1993 he received a Special Prize in Music given by the Nippon Steel Company. He also served as artistic advisor to Yamaha.

Bachi was a member of the IHS Advisory Council from 1986-89 and elected an Honorary Member in 1989. He was one of the hosts for the 1995 IHS Symposium in Yamagata.

Mason Jones is best known for his long tenure with the Philadelphia Orchestra, but he also published music for horn players, recorded chamber and solo literature, and taught many students at Curtis Institute and at home, passing on the traditions of Anton Horner, Marcel Tabuteau, and Fritz Reiner.

Jones was born in 1919 in Hamilton NY, where his father was a professor of Romance Languages at Colgate University. His mother was a pianist, and Jones first played the piano, then the trumpet. The local conductor switched him to horn (which he liked much better) and suggested he audition at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. While in high school, Jones played in the Utica NY Symphony on a brass Kruspe borrowed from Colgate University.

From 1936 to 1938 Jones was a student of Anton Horner at Curtis. He was invited to audition for the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1938 when three of its horn players left, and he was hired as third horn. He became principal horn the following season, playing under both Stokowski and Ormandy. His first recording was the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante with Stokowski.

During WWII Jones served as principal horn of the Marine Band in Washington DC. In 1946 he returned to the Philadelphia Orchestra and remained principal horn until his retirement in 1978. He also joined the Curtis faculty in 1946, retiring in 1995. After he retired from playing, he continued as Personnel Manager of the orchestra (1963-86) and conducted school concerts (1972-82).

In an interview in the February 1996 issue of The Horn Call, Jones commented, "It [the Philadelphia Orchestra] was my only position and when I was young, it was like heaven. I had no desire to go any other place and was perfectly happy in Philadelphia all the way through." Playing the Shostakovich Cello concerto with Rostropovitch, with Shostakovich present for rehearsals, concerts, and recording, was a highlight.

Jones was a co-founder of the Philadelphia Woodwind Quintet (1950) and the Philadelphia Brass Ensemble (1957). His conducting included the Episcopal Academy Orchestra (1958-60) and the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra (1961-64).

Colgate University bestowed an Honorary Doctor of Music degree on Jones in 1970. He was elected an IHS Honorary Member in 1979 and served as President in 1986-87.

His recordings of the standard horn repertoire include the concertos of Mozart and Strauss, and the Hindemith Sonata with pianist Glenn Gould. Many recordings of standard solo repertoire were part of the Philadelphia Orchestra series "First Chair" and "First Chair Encores."

Some of his published editions, which are still available, include:

First Solos for the Horn Player
Solos for the Horn Player
Intermediate French Horn Solos
20th Century Orchestra Studies