by Julia Burtscher

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression”

This quote is attributed to Will Rogers and Oscar Wilde, has been used in numerous ad campaigns and can be applied to just about any aspect of life, from handshakes to first dates to auditions and everything in between. In the late 1990’s I worked as an administrative assistant at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Part of my job was to organize the auditions we held, from receiving resumes to checking people in and shepherding them into warmup rooms and working with the personnel manager to make sure everything ran smoothly. My biggest takeaway from working these auditions was that you have six minutes or less to prove to the committee that you were worth hearing again in the next round. Six minutes.  But what about recorded auditions? Certainly, they save time and money in travel, but an investment needs to be made to ensure you have the best recording possible. 

After asking trusted resources and scouring the internet for actionable, tangible guidelines, I’ve compiled a list of elements to consider when preparing to record an audition for submission:

1. Follow the rules! Each entity you are auditioning for may have different requirements. Make sure you read and understand the rules. If you don’t your audition can be rejected without anyone listening to it! Here are some examples of specific requirements:
   • “Recordings must be recent: made no more than three months prior to application” (Aspen Music Festival)
   • Each excerpt or work must be played through without stopping (Aspen Music Festival)
   • Repertoire should be played in the order listed… any recordings submitted out of the proper order or with any other material than the listed repertoire will be disqualified (New York Philharmonic)
   • You may create your collection in any way you like, but each piece or excerpt must be edit-free, e.g., no editing to fix bad notes. (Brevard Music Center)

Compiled by Mike Harcrow with contributions in English, German, Spanish, French, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese by Mike Harcrow, Samuel Seidenberg, Jhon Kevin López Morales (3rd prize), Yang Liu (1st prize), François Rieu, Jay Kim (2nd prize), Dr. Olivier Huebscher, Bernard Scully, Nobuaki Fukukawa, and Miwa Endo

Jeju International Brass Competition
Mike Harcrow (Adjudicator)

The 14th Annual Jeju International Brass Competition (http://jejuibc.org/english) took place from August 8-16, 2019, on scenic Jeju Island in South Korea. This prestigious competition is a member of UNESCO’s World Federation of International Music Competitions, and awards are sizable cash prizes. Categories for this year were brass quintet, tenor trombone, trumpet, and horn (and even-numbered calendar years include percussion, tuba, euphonium, and bass trombone). First-prize winners in each category also receive a new Yamaha professional-model instrument and a live, nationally-televised concerto performance with the Jeju Provincial Orchestra (https://youtu.be/88qelYRFiXs). This year, for the first time, the first-place winner in the horn division was awarded an additional monetary prize from the International Horn Society. Adjudicators for the horn division were Samuel Seidenberg (Germany), Szu-Yuan Chuang (Taiwan), Quan Wen (China), Bernhard Scully and Mike Harcrow (USA), Nobuaki Fukukawa (Japan), and head judge Young-yul Kim (Korea).

51 of 61 entrants performed in Round 1, which took place over two days in the small concert hall in Stone Park in the foothills of Mt. Halla, a long-dormant volcano that is the geographical heart of Jeju Island. 13 players advanced to a stamina-taxing Round 2; and 3 played the Final Round, the Gliere Concerto, memorized with the JPO in the Jeju Arts Center in Jeju City. The three finalists were Jhon Kevin López Morales (Colombia; third, $4,000.00), Jay Kim (Korea; second, $6,000.00), and Liu Yang (China; first $8,000.00). Zeng Yun, hornist and winner of the recent Tchaikovsky Competition, was also a member of the second-place brass quintet. Sincere congratulations to the winners—and to all the incredibly-capable and well-prepared players who competed—from your IHS family!

As a returning judge, my greatest impression of the JIBC is—as it was 8 years ago—that the future of professional horn playing around the world is not merely secure but actually better with each new generation. The confidence, technical agility, and gorgeous lyricism of these dozens of young players—Jay Kim, for example, is only 16—was truly inspiring. I was also deeply impressed by the friendliness and support of the competitors for one another; and even among the adjudicators there was a heartfelt collegiality as well as near unanimity in the very difficult (insofar as the players were all so good!) scoring process.

Below, in their native languages, are impressions from “both sides of the screen,” both from some of my colleagues on the excellent panel and from some of the competitors, many of whom are also new friends.

Some thoughts on warming up

During my 30 or so years of teaching the horn, my teaching methods have gone through some evolutions. The tendency has been consciously and unconsciously to simplify things, both for me and for my students.

The physical part of playing the horn is not rocket science, but in my opinion it is actually quite a simple procedure if one has basic musicality and a certain talent for body coordination. It is about producing wind with varied speed against the sail, which is the lips. The more complex part is the “song,” as in Arnold Jacobs’ “Song and Wind”. The brain, or your soul if you prefer, gives you the song. The song should pass through your body into the horn freely, just as good singers would approach a beautiful melody in their best range.

This, in a nutshell, is why we practice.

It is important to get a good start physically to your horn-playing day in order to find this free, natural song. Breathing exercises before touching the horn are very valuable. Try to relax your breathing, so that inhaling or exhaling larger amounts of air and doing it slowly  or quickly feels natural, like a reflex, and involves tensing muscles as little as possible. Look for inspiration from yoga.

You should then make sure that the lips are in a good position against each other for free and effortless vibration. Lips that are too open or too tight will lead to many problems. Use mouthpiece buzzing and mental images to find the right position; avoid any squeezing or thinking about the muscles. Play just with the mouthpiece around the middle range, looking for an effortless transition to and from the low range. Listen to the sound. Is it free and centered? I personally use a little buzzing only with the lips in my warm up, combined with mouthpiece playing. This should be done with caution on just a few middle-range notes. In daily practice, a bit of controlled buzzing only with lips can be used for embouchure strength building.

Relaxed air flow and easy buzz are the cornerstones of my warmup routine and horn playing philosophy. My other important warm up exercises are for flexibility, low range and attacks. I have, as many others nowadays, discovered the benefits of flutter tongue, which are in my opinion:

• Massage for the tongue. It can relax and open up the back of the tongue and throat, leading to less air resistance and thus better sound and easier tone production.
• You have to produce a certain air pressure against the tongue for it to start to flutter - this will help you get your air moving.
• The front of the tongue can be brought into a perfect position for clear attacks with flutter tongue exercises.

Lecture for the 9th International Horn Workshop
Hartford, 1977

by lb Lanky - Otto

The title of this little talk can perhaps be taken as a provocation; isn't a beautiful horn tone exactly what we are all striving for? Yet I ask this question because I am convinced that the tone we produce is the most unimportant aspect of getting the best result, and it must not be the focus of our problems and concentration.

How often don't we say: "Oh, what an ugly Sound he or she has"? Do we really mean what we say? Couldn't there be something else displeasing us? Try to analyze: perhaps he or she has a hard or clumsy attack? Does he end a phrase heavily? Or does he push every note like a "wah-wah?" Or there could be something else I haven't mentioned here. Anyway, if it is any of these characteristics or any other kind of playing behavior, it has nothing to do with the tone; it is the treatment of the tone.

If the tone ideal as such is an important.question, my highest ideal as a horn player wouldn't be Dennis Brain. To my taste he didn't have an especially charming sound, certainly not the so-called "romantic" horn sound. A Iess gifted horn player wouldn't have had such tremendous success with that particular sound. Now then, what is the difference between a master and the less brilliant star? Of course, in the case of Brain, the musicality: the "agogik"⁽¹⁾ and phrasing. That's an important part of the treatment of the tone. But even more important elements of what we are talking about here are: