Domaine Forget
English version
by Louis-Philippe Marsolais
J’ai commencé à aller au Domaine Forget comme étudiant à l’âge de 18 ans, il y a déjà trop longtemps ! Ce lieu magique, enclavé entre les montagnes de Charlevoix et le fleuve St-Laurent m’a énormément fait évoluer comme musicien, interprète et être humain. J’y ai passé, dans les années qui ont suivi, plusieurs des plus beaux moments musicaux de ma jeunesse, où j’y ai rencontré les Hermann Baumann, John Zirbel, Vincent Cichowicz, Roger Bobo, travaillé avec Guy Carmichael et Eugene Rittich, joué en musique de chambre avec Lance Nagels et Geoff Thompson. J’ai aussi tissé des liens avec de jeunes musiciens plein de talent et d’ambition qui allaient devenir plus tard des collègues – Julie-Anne Drolet et Gabe Radford.
Pour beaucoup de musiciens jeunes et moins jeunes, le Domaine Forget représente bien plus qu’un endroit où on reçoit des cours. Sa situation géographique, ce lieu isolé des grands centres (avec un internet intermittent), où le fleuve se transforme à chaque jour en des millions de reflets dorés ou bien en un nuage de brouillard dense nous fait réaliser la force de la nature, autant que la beauté qui y est attachée. L’expérience culinaire de la cafétéria est indescriptible (!) et permet à l’occasion d’initier les étrangers à la poutine de Chez Ginette. Les soirées au bord du feu ou bien au « party barn » permettent de fraterniser avec les musiciens d’un peu partout, avec en toile de fond un quatuor de cuivres graves qui rejoue encore une fois le dernier mouvement de la 8e de Bruckner jusqu’à tard dans la nuit. Peu importe qu’on assiste au lever du soleil sur le fleuve ou pas, on réalise que peu importe la longueur de la nuit, on réussit toujours à passer une autre journée productive, avec des classes de maîtres, des cours, des répétitions de musique de chambre, des lectures de symphonies, des concerts et autres ateliers. Et à la fin du stage, on a certainement besoin de quelques semaines pour intégrer tous ces apprentissages !
Summer Band and Orchestra Camps for Adults!
by Lydia Van Dreel
Adult avocational horn players have lots of opportunities to play: community bands, community orchestras, and horn clubs, to name a few. Lately, new summer band/orchestra camps are all the rage with adult musicians who want an intensive, immersive experience in the summertime. Midsummer Musical Retreat, hosted by Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, is one such summer camp that hosts about 200 adult campers for one week each summer. Performance activities include Symphony Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, Choir, and Chamber Music. Students can also sign up for a wide range of elective classes, from barbershop quartet, to music theory, to drum circle, to gentle yoga. Along with plenty of enriching music and music-related activities, there are a wide range of social activities as well, making this week long musical immersion and wonderfully fulfilling summer camp opportunity for adults. As the horn instructor for the week, I am blessed to teach a crew of horn aficionados, many of whom come back year after year to enjoy all of the offerings of the camp, including a daily horn sectional and horn ensemble readings. New campers are quickly embraced and encouraged in the horn group!
The environment is very supportive and non-competitive. Students of all levels and abilities are welcome. When registering, students fill out a self-assessment form to help the camp directors place students in desired ensembles. Everyone is there to learn and have fun! For more information on Midsummer Musical Retreat (MMR):
Last Chance for the Special IHS50 Shirt
Last Chance to purchase the special gold foil IHS50 T-shirt! These are available through pre-purchase only at: https://www.hornsociety.org/ihs50-shirt Order before June 25! These T-shirts will not be for sale at the Symposium, you must order NOW.
The Fourth Jinbao International Music Festival
by Paul Meng, Chinese Horn Society
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| A masterclass of the Second China Horn Festival, took place at Jinbao Theater in summer of 2016 |
The Fourth Jinbao International Music Festival will take place at the Jinbao Musical Instrument Factory, Tianjin City, Jinbao County, China. This festival is financially supported by Jinbao Musical Instrument Manufacturers. The festival includes horn, trumpet, trombone and tuba, clarinet, percussion, and saxophone. Each instrument’s festival takes place at a different time of year. Jinbao Musical Instrument Manufacturers established this festival in the summer of 2015. It is great and we benefit from the generous sponsorship of Jinbao Musical Instruments Manufacture and the local government. We all thank them very much!
The Chinese Horn Society was not a part of the first Jinbao festival in 2015 but did join the 2nd one in 2016. The CHS held the 1st China Horn Festival by itself in 2006, so Jinbao and CHS both agreed that the 2016 CHS horn festival should be called the 2nd China Horn Festival. The 3rd Jinbao festival was in 2017 but featured other instruments without horn.
The Third China Horn Festival will be from Aug. 8th -14th, 2018. The artists we have invited, are Felix Klieser from Germany, Jukka Harju from Finland, Frank Lloyd from the UK, Javier Bonet from Spain, and a special post-retirement appearance by the American Horn Quartet. We also invited Ms. Kristina Mascher-Tuner as IHS official, to represent the IHS and help promote IHS membership in China. There will be a few more well-known players to be decided to invite and post later.
There will be artist concerts every evening as well as local master classes every day. Participants will enjoy and learn different styles of playing. Some of the top symphony players from China will also play concerts and have all kinds of teaching classes.
Special Commemorative T-shirt!
For sale only by pre-order. This is not the event t-shirt that you will receive as part of your registration for the IHS Symposium in Muncie. This t-shirt commemorates 50 years of IHS Symposia! It is a high quality black t-shirt, with Gold Foil on both the front and back, as well as gold metallic and white ink. The back of the t-shirt lists the years and locations of all 50 Symposia. You'll have a great time, locating all that you've attended, plus noting the ones you missed. We're hoping to have some photo ops in Muncie with everyone wearing these commemorative shirts.
You MUST pre-order this shirt. We are placing the printing order for the shirts based on pre-orders, so we will not have many (or any) for sale at the Muncie Symposium, but you will see all your friends wearing one. So purchase one NOW and don't miss out. Deadline for ordering: June 25, 2018.
- Go to www.hornsociety.org/ihs50-shirt
- Select either: Pickup at IHS50, or, Ship to USA or non-USA address
- Complete the form under your selection (including size)
- Pay using your Credit Card or PayPal
- Wait with bated breath until this summer’s Symposium in Muncie to get your first glimpse of your new shirt!
- Wear your shirt all week and participate in lots of photo ops! And, be the envy of all your horn playing friends
If you simply cannot attend the Muncie Symposium (so sad), you can anxiously wait by your mailbox for your shirt delivery by USPS Priority Mail, as soon as the Symposium ends. You can still enjoy wearing your shirt at any horn related event and at future Symposia, or even just while practicing.
Breathing Gym and Brass Gym
by Sarah Krueger
“Remember: Tension kills tone!”
If you’re anything like me, you believe that efficiency is the name of the game. We all want to achieve effortless and efficient ways of playing our instrument, yet sometimes it seems more like a concept instead of something that can be applied in a practical manner. So how can we practice using our air and lips efficiently while maintaining “necessary” tension to create beautiful sounds? For me, the answers are in The Breathing Gym and The Brass Gym.
Does this sound familiar?
Ever been teaching in a classroom full of students who just got back from lunch, hyper as can be? What about those times when you have no idea where to start practicing because you feel the need to practice EVERYTHING? Or how about playing the big solo in Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony where all you can think about is how loud your racing heart beat sounds? Sounds crazy, but I’ve been in each of these situations and can tell you that I have used principles and concepts from both The Breathing Gym and The Brass Gym to help me out.
So what is the Breathing Gym and Brass Gym?
The Breathing Gym is a book and supplemental DVD created by Tubists Patrick Sheridan and Sam Pilafian intended to assist Band, Chorus, and Orchestral Wind musicians with, “tone, stamina, and all-around performance” through exercises that, “can be used as part of a warm-up routine, as a mid-rehearsal change of pace, or to address specific issues such as dynamics, articulation and phrasing”. The Brass Gym is a comprehensive book of exercises, routines, and workouts designed as an expansion of the principles addressed in The Breathing Gym.
The Legacy of Arnold Jacobs
an Interview with Michael Grose from The Brass Herald
Arnold Jacobs (1915 – 1998) had the reputation as both the master performer and master teacher. He taught tuba at Northwestern University in Chicago and all wind instruments in his private studio. He was one of the most sought-after teachers in the world, specializing in respiratory and motivational applications for brass and woodwind instruments and voice. His students include many in orchestras and university faculties around the world. Jacobs never published any books about his teaching, but some of his students have written books.
Michael Grose, Professor of Tuba at the University of Oregon and former Arnold Jacobs student, has contributed to the legacy of Arnold Jacobs by producing more than 50 interviews with colleagues of former students of Jacobs. You can find these on YouTube channel TubaPeople TV.
This interview is a truncated version of an interview, used with permission, from the Brass Herald.
How were your studies with Jacobs?
My studies with Jacobs were amazing. They were substantively unlike any other teacher I had. In each and every lesson, he was able to effect positive change in my playing. Each lesson I left sounding significantly improved, but over the course of the week that improvement faded somewhat. Then the same thing would happen during the next lesson. It was a process of two steps forward in the lesson and one step backward during the interval before the next lesson. Over the course of time, the trajectory was upward. He was a most remarkable man, musician, and teacher. He was able to stimulate astonishingly positive change in the level of playing from most of those who sought him out.
My lessons were non-systematic in nature. In other words, there was not a clearly defined curriculum from one week to the next. It was more his reacting to what I was doing with my playing at the moment. Over the course of time, though, he covered most of what needed to be covered, but it was done in a manner that was more natural. He was meeting me where I was at the time and leading me to the next stage, as opposed to putting an artificial curricular template on me and forcing me through it.
