Scholarship Program News
Hi Everyone, Patrick Hughes here, coming to you from Austin TX. I am one of your Advisory Council members, and the IHS Scholarship Coordinator. I hope that all of our IHS members and their loved ones are healthy and staying safe. I’m writing today to give everyone an update on the IHS Scholarship Program Competitions.
First and foremost: All the competitions this year are on!
There are 2 BIG news items I want to highlight:
- The competitions and their deadlines have been spread throughout the year, in order to avoid the bottling up of deadlines that usually occur in April—which is, for many a tough time to be making recordings and getting recommendation. My hope is that spreading the deadlines out will enable horn players to keep the competitions separate and unique, and allow everyone the chance to plan which competitions you’d like to enter. We will be naming the winner of each competition usually within a month of the entry deadline, and celebrating each winner via announcements on the IHS page as well as social media outlets.
- We’ve adjusted the repertoire requirements, primarily due to the pandemic’s effect on making recordings with pianists due to social distancing. So, look for more options to play unaccompanied solos, as well as allowing for solos that usually require collaboration to be played sans piano, AND look for a few new repertoire changes!
Though the deadline for the Barry Tuckwell scholarship application has passed (December 1), the rest of the competition deadlines are still coming up!
- January 1: Mansur Award (essay/letter only--no recording)
- February 1: Frizzelle Orchestral Excerpt Competition (includes recordings) completely online this year!
- March 1: Hawkins (includes recordings) - virtual
- April 1: Premiere Soloist competition with a deadline virtual preliminary, and the live finals round which will be part of the online IHS 53 next summer!
More details to come regarding the Premiere Soloist competition, as new repertoire is being discussed right now.
So get your horns out, start looking at repertoire to record and check out the IHS website for specific information about all of the scholarships competitions at https://www.hornsociety.org/about-the-ihs/scholarships
2020 British Horn Symposium Recap
by Lindsey Stoker and Richard Steggall
2020 is a big celebration year for the British Horn Society as it marks the 40th anniversary of its founding. It was due to be celebrated with a festival at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire on Sunday 1st November featuring guest soloists Radek Baborák and Ben Goldscheider. With the COVID outbreak and the country in lockdown it was looking increasingly unlikely that it would be able to go ahead. Time to think outside the box!
The main problem that we faced was that the lure of our annual festival for many is a social one. Yes, we showcase the best in horn-playing from Britain and abroad, but the focus is on being together, talking about and playing the horn. We have recitals, classes and group playing for young and old throughout the day, and for a lot of players the highlight is the massed blow at the end of the evening concert where children, amateurs and professionals all rub shoulders. We were determined still to hold a festival on 1st November, but how could we recreate that sense of community in an online event?
A festival sub-committee was formed and, with the help of Zoom, came up with an programme that we could stream on the day. Initially we decided to ask professional players around the country to submit videos talking about technique and also invited members to submit remote ensemble recordings for a competition as well as an online valve stringing contest, with prizes for speed and style. Given the coronavirus restrictions that musicians were experiencing, it also seemed like an opportunity to invite orchestral sections to introduce themselves, perhaps talking about their new work environment, what they might be missing or whatever they felt might be interesting for the BHS community. The final result was a mixture of these elements. Some sections were sadly unable to contribute as they were still not back at work.
At the 11th hour a window of opportunity opened for there to be a live-streamed element hosted by the Stoller Hall, a new concert hall at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester where Tom Redmond, former second hornist of The Hallé orchestra, animateur and presenter had recently been appointed joint head. Instantly this opened up new possibilities. Manchester is the home of The Hallé, BBC Philharmonic and Manchester Camerata and nearby is Opera North in Leeds. Surely we could form a horn ensemble for the event? Despite travel restrictions it was also looking possible that Ben Goldscheider could still be involved. Time to re-think our ideas...
The first festival, in 1980, concluded with a massed horn ensemble playing Beethoven’s Egmont Overture arranged and conducted by Alan Civil. Could we recreate an online version of this? We managed to assemble eight players from four orchestras to play in a live-stream performance with Ben Goldscheider, encouraging everyone else to join in from their homes to recreate this moment. To compliment this, it seemed fitting to include the magical opening quartet from Humperdink’s Hansel and Gretel arranged for eight horns by Jeffry Kirschen. With Lindsey Stoker and Tom Redmond controlling events from Manchester and Richard Steggall running the YouTube feed safely from his home in London, 200 miles away, we were ready to go.
The event opened with a welcome from the BHS honorary chair Barbara MacLaren followed by a short film of the first British Horn Festival, including interviews with Willi Watson and Tim Jones. Videos premiered on YouTube every 15 minutes and included “Dream Concert Programmes” from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra horn section, “Four Reasons to Learn the Natural Horn” from Anneke Scott, “Top Five Things We Say to Our Students” from Tim Jones and Angela Barnes (London Symphony Orchestra) and how to play the Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 1st movement horn solo and Maxwell Davies’s Sea Eagle from Nicholas Korth (BBC Symphony Orchestra) and Richard Watkins respectively.
Ben Goldscheider and Huw Watkins performed an exquisite recital which was live-streamed after the first hour. Their programme was Jörg Widmann Air for solo horn, Roxanna Panufnik Sonnets Without Words, Huw Watkins Lament and the Beethoven Horn Sonata.
The event concluded with a live performance by the Manchester octet. Tom Redmond enthusiastically compered and announced the winners of the ensemble competition, with prizes donated by Corniworld Publications. The success of the event was highlighted by the number of photos of people playing along to the Egmont Overture in their own living rooms. The online nature also meant that we had a more international flavour to our audience, with many players from around the world joining in our live YouTube chat as the videos premiered. The one disappointing element was that no one entered the fastest valve stringing competition! Perhaps that’s for another time...
All our YouTube videos and the performance of the Egmont Overture can be found on the British Horn Society’s YouTube channel. You can also have a go at joining in with the Egmont Overture; parts are available here.
For those interested in the British Horn Society, our latest magazine can be found here.
The Other Side of Fear -
A Road Trip by Amy Sanchez
The following is a reflection from my recent 3-month solo adventure in travel, self-discovery, and of course, horn playing! Originally shared on Facebook, this post focused more on the first two rather than the latter, but I did indeed practice and record horn while on the road! I brought my recording gear with me (AEA ribbon mic, Apogee interface, laptop with ProTools) so I didn’t have to turn down any remote recording work, and rented a few hotels and AirBnbs along the way to do some teaching and master classes as well. While the pandemic has undoubtedly been difficult, it has also provided some unique opportunities. In addition to my “normal” work of teaching and recording, I spent much of my time on the trip photographing and filming for a yet-to-be disclosed project involving music and my passion for conservation. Hint: the project is related to a brass ensemble I’ve started, Horns for Rhinos, supporting the South African wildlife conservation non-profit Nkombe Rhino. You may remember an article in the May 2019 IHS Horn Call about my initial work with this endeavor!
Possibility.
“Everything you want is on the other side of fear.”
-Jack Canfield (also attributed to George Addair)
When do you feel most alive? Have you felt it recently? I think it’s fair to say that I’ve always loved travel - I remember as a kid all the weekends my family would simply “go for a drive,” or head into the Adirondack Mountains to go backpacking. For as long as I can remember, every time I pass an airport, I yearn to fly somewhere, anywhere. Exploration, curiosity, learning, adventure - it’s all part of it, but I realize now that possibility is the main motivation for me. When I travel, I feel like my whole world opens up and opportunities materialize. Not only tangible opportunities, but perhaps even more importantly, the opportunity to shift my perspective, to follow a gut feeling toward the unknown, to be vulnerable in the unfamiliar, and to simply be in awe.
I’ve always loved road trips and have been fascinated by the admittedly simple concept that quite literally, the road I live on leads to the road you live on- and anywhere in the continental United States! ☺️ We are so lucky to have such space and freedom to explore. Even without leaving the country, it would take more than a lifetime to see it all (and of course, foreign travel opens up even more possibility for perspective and discovery).
I fully understand not everyone has the opportunity to travel far and wide- and I’m extremely grateful (and work very hard) for the circumstances that have allowed me to do so. Keep in mind, there are trade-offs to everything, which I won’t get into here. Suffice to say, after spending four months in quarantine completely on my own this past spring, I decided to take advantage of forced “time off” (as a freelance musician, all time off is unpaid), and go on an ambitious solo road trip this summer. In what one might consider an extreme social distancing measure, from July into October, I traveled for 99 days, drove 15,692 miles weaving my way through 30 national parks/monuments and countless other national forests, state parks, and natural lands in 28 states (including a flight up to Alaska to photograph coastal brown bears!). I basically avoided cities at all costs. The map of my route is below, and while I know you can’t see all the stops clearly here, I’ll be sharing more details in the future.
For anyone curious, I used Roadtrippers to plan my route- a very helpful app/website! Side note, before anyone is too hurt that I didn’t call while I was passing through their town, please keep in mind most of my stops were very short, annnnnd we’re in a pandemic… I was avoiding all humans! ? I wish I could’ve visited so many friends along the way. I skipped some areas that I know I’ll be hitting in the future (like the Pacific Northwest), and a few areas I’ve been in the past, but I was able to cover an awful lot of the most beautiful parts of the United States.
Our National Parks and protected lands are certainly our greatest treasure. It was humbling to experience even just a bit of the vast wilderness areas that surround us, and see the monumental efforts that have gone into preserving them and providing public access. That road that I live on, and the one that you live on? It travels through some really incredible places.
Was I nervous? Lonely at times? Uncomfortable in the unknown? Even heart-racing scared? Yes, definitely. But the growth that comes from facing those challenging moments when you only have yourself to rely on and pull yourself out of far outweighs the temporary discomfort. In all my travels, for all the lonely moments, there have been ten times as many that I was exhilarated, in awe of my surroundings, and motivated to see what was around the next corner. Through all the nerves, I’ve gained a confidence that has left me far less concerned about what others think, far more comfortable in my own company, and ready to handle whatever comes my way. Will there be more nerves and fear in the future? I hope so- for me, it’s grounding, and the best way to move forward and create opportunity. “Everything you want is on the other side of fear.”
Needless to say, I have many photos, videos, and stories to share (and I’ve got plans for some of that in the future), but on the trip, once I removed myself from the constant news and social media bubble, the discovery came that I didn’t need to share it with the world as it was happening. I wanted to savor it, be fully present in the moment, reflect on it. And now, just under 3 weeks after returning home to LA, I’m barely getting to the point where I can put a few of those reflections into words. Of course, while this was a solo road trip, I wasn’t really alone, and am infinitely grateful to the close friends and family who support me in so many ways, even in my solitude - which I’ve learned is far different than loneliness. ♥️
More than anything, my goal is to bring the the awe-inspired eyes from my trip and the perspective of possibility with me in everything I do. LA feels different now, music feels different, community feels different - and everything feels possible; opportunity is around the next corner. A fundamental shift, and I hope the idea might help inspire others in this unprecedented time that has been difficult for so many.
Possibility and opportunity are on the other side of fear.
If you’d like to follow my journey, please find me on social media or at my website below, where I’ve very recently started blogging about music, conservation, travel, photography, and perhaps most importantly, inspiration. Much more to come!
www.AmySanchezMusic.com
www.HornsForRhinos.org
www.facebook.com/sanchezamy
www.instagram.com/amyoutsidethemusic
Pedagogy - Erik Ralske
Five Essential Reasons to Subdivide
Have you ever been so excited to hear a recording of a performance you just gave, feeling certain that it was not only flawless, but also musically thrilling, only to be bitterly disappointed after hearing the recording? You may think, “how could it sound so bland when it seemed so exciting from behind the horn?” Upon a closer listening, you may hear the missed opportunities to really convey the emotions of the music. Maybe you let a long note die on the vine? Perhaps you now hear a less than perfect slur? If it seems odd to think of subdividing as the cure for your musical malaise or technical lapses, not so! Read on….
Students are told by their teachers to subdivide from the earliest lessons, with the emphasis solely on good rhythm and yet the ability to play steadily still eludes so many. However, the value of subdividing while playing goes way beyond “playing in time”. In fact, subdivisions are the force that propels music forward—either towards greater intensity and passion or towards moments of calm of resolution. If we recognize the power of this mini-engine that sits between the big beats of the basic pulse, and then learn how to drive this engine with precision in order to take our listeners on exactly the journey we envision, our performances can be transformed.
How to start?
The first step is to take a passage and break down every long note down to the next logical smaller value. Using the the overly familiar solo entrance of Richard Strauss’ Horn Concerto #1 at bar 28 as an example, we would divide everything into 1/8 notes. Be careful not to articulate with your air, but instead, slice through a long block of air with your tongue. Play through the passage enough times with a metronome so that you’re certain of the rhythmic precision. Note: When practicing with a metronome, break free of being a passenger and “following the metronome”. By playing all the subdivisions, you are now the driver of the metronome, predicting with precision when the next click of the metronome will come.
The second step is to tie dynamics to rhythm. Now practice the phrase articulating every 1/8 note, thinking that each 1/8 is picking up more volume and intensity until you finally reach the exact high point, and then control the rate that each 1/8 note loses volume or intensity. This requires that you visualize in detail the contour of every moment of the phrase. Like a sculptor first roughs out a shape from a block of stone, your first few passes may not be fully refined. But with practice, the clarity of your ideal version of the phrase will emerge. I find it helpful to consider using numbers as though you had a volume dial that went from 1-20. So the first 4 bars of the Strauss Concerto passage might look like this:
By the time you’ve done this passage 10-20 times, you’ll hopefully notice a transformation, revealing 5 essential benefits of subdividing:
- Perfect rhythmic control.
- A much more clear and expressive line.
Communication of the intent of the phrase will be much more direct with a detailed dynamic plan based on 1/8’s (versus 1/4’s). It’s like having a much higher resolution photo versus a low resolution image from the 1990’s. For example, we all tend to decay on long notes even if the overall direction of the phrase is a crescendo. That can detract from your musical intent. - Better air flow throughout the phrase.
If you’re truly connecting the subdivision “dots” with your air, your air flow won’t lapse as long as you follow your dynamic blueprint. - Fewer technical glitches.
Better rhythm means better coordination of air, fingers and lips and therefore, fewer mishaps - Remedy for performance anxiety.
You will notice a deeper level of concentration and feeling of engagement while you play, as you control every moment, knowing the precise direction of the music at every moment, subdivision by subdivision. It’s as if you’re saying “now” with each passing subdivision,. Focusing on the present tense on a micro level, melts away attachments to past and future, where the effects of past mistakes or future expectations distract us from the task at hand: following the path you created with the stepping stones of the subdivisions of the phrase.
While this approach may be dismissed as overly analytical and lacking spontaneity, I maintain that with discipline comes independence. Once you’ve spent enough time experiencing your hands on the steering wheel of every moment of a phrase, one can spontaneously decide to deviate from your blueprint, as long as you maintain control of the direction of every subdivision. However, greatness is in the details. Great music and great performances are no different. Therefore, careful contemplation of the ultimate beauty of a phrase deserves no less attention.
Erik Ralske is currently Principal Horn of the Metropolitan Opera and a former member of the New York Philharmonic. He is a faculty member at The Juilliard School, Mannes College of Music and the Aspen Music Festival.
Horns A Plenty Christmas Virtual Ensemble
Don Krause, founder and leader of the annual Horns A Plenty Christmas ensemble, invites you to lend your chops and enthusiasm to this year's Covid virtual horn choir! The music and instructions are included in pdf this PDF(75 KB) , and the link to the click track is here.
Area Rep Corner - Jonathan Luxton
Your Horn and More team is happy to bring you this new regular feature, the Area Rep Corner. Here our representatives and regional coordinators from around the world can introduce themselves and share news from their local horn communities. Our first contribution comes from Jonathan Luxton, IHS country representative for Ireland.
Notes from the Emerald Isle
Since joining the International Horn Society, I am still the only member in Ireland. However, I have not been idle!
I have been able to carry on teaching online since March, and for the last three months, I have started directing the historic Limerick St. John’s Brass & Reed Band.
We are now in lockdown again, so my efforts to start an outreach programme with the band for young students in the local area have been put on hold. We were sponsored by Fine Wines Limerick so we could start an instrument bank, and we were able to begin teaching adults. It was wonderful to see the band hall filled with colourful P bones and P cornets. When will they start to make P horns??
I teach at a small music school in Killaloe, the Munster Music Academy, where so far I have one trumpet student. The school offers a good variety of instruments, but the majority of students (or their parents?) solely want to study the piano. This I just do not understand. By playing a string, woodwind, or percussion instrument, students have the opportunity to play in amateur orchestras, bands, ensembles, etc. I believe the opportunity to play in youth groups is so important for social interaction, friendships, teamwork, and responsibility to others, learning about other instruments, and expanding your musical education. If you only study the piano, it can be a very solitary musical experience. Interestingly, in November last year, I was invited to deputise as conductor of a local amateur orchestra. The orchestra had a fine string section but no oboes, bassoons, or French horns. Where are these amateur players?
The band’s outreach programme for teaching brass and woodwind to students is called First Steps in Music. I’m excited to have the opportunity to introduce brass at the grassroots level with these young aspiring players, and hopefully through them and their parents help to begin to spread awareness of brass in Limerick.
I am passionate about children having the opportunity to learn a musical instrument. I was brought up in the UK when instrumental lessons were free. We are offering local schools in Limerick the chance to study for a small weekly fee, and we will provide the instruments.
I have only been in Ireland for just over a year. In my time freelancing and teaching, I have met some wonderful horn players, but I have noticed a surprising lack of amateur brass and woodwind players in general in the greater Limerick area.
I believe that there is a wonderful opportunity here in Ireland to bring brass players, old and new, out of the woodwork, in addition to inspiring a new generation.
Mike Hatfield Recollections Request
Horn friends and enthusiasts,
Please consider contributing any recollections, anecdotes, simple one-liners you heard and have remembered from working with Michael Hatfield throughout his career from public schools days in Evansville, college days in Bloomington, and professional and informal days throughout his performing and teaching career in Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Aspen, Santa Fe and Bloomington for a tribute article being constructed. Photos from all those cities are being sought as well as recollections from administrators, audience members will gladly be included along with those from former colleagues and pupils. Mr. Hatfield has touched so many nationally and internationally. Please send your thoughts at an early convenience to John Dressler via jdressler293@gmail.com.
