Crowdfunding a CD
by Stefan Blonk
For a long time, recording a solo CD was on my bucket list. In my years as solo horn in the Gelders Orkest (Arnhem, Netherlands) I made many recordings of the large orchestra repertoire: Mahler 5 and 6, Tchaikovsky 5, and many others. Furthermore, I recorded the horn concerto by Mercadente with the Amsterdam Police Band for the Molenaar label. But a solo CD didn't come at that time, mostly because I didn't know where to start and which pieces to choose.
In 2013 I quit my job. It wasn't going well with my orchestra because of heavy budget cuts, and it wasn't going well with me. I wanted something different. I took a sabbatical, and through the medium of the Millereau natural horn I had purchased from Lowell Greer, I found my way back to the joy in music. Soon my calendar was full of natural horn engagements. I found myself playing with fantastic groups such as the Orchestra of the 18th Century, the Apollo Ensemble, Anima Eterna, and many others. I also got an expanded position with the conservatory in Zwolle and started another project I'd been thinking about for a long time. I wanted a company where enthusiastic natural horn players could find a good selection of historical instruments.
During a rehearsal of the Brahms Horn Trio (on natural horn), the violinist said to me, "We really should record this!" And thus my old wish emerged once again in all its enthusiasm! I thought it over, did some research on crowdfunding platforms, and calculated the minimum amount the whole thing would cost.
The pianist, Riko Fukuda, had access to a variety of magnificent historical pianos. Her husband is Edwin Beunk, owner of fortepiano.nl.
To make a CD these days is fairly simple, as long as you have the budget for it. I had to keep it as cheap as possible without sacrificing the quality I had in mind. For the crowdfunding, I set a realistic goal: 5000 EUR - not enough for everything, but definitely a good start. I simply wanted to try it and see if it worked. I did a lot of advertising on social media, especially on Facebook, and wrote several emails to friends, family, and acquaintances. When you are asking for money, you have to be ready for rejections; you'll receive a lot of them. But there were also surprises. A rich friend pledged a large sum, and through that, the crowdfunding was already a success in advance.
You're asking people to support a project before it's even started. As a reward, you promise a CD, a concert ticket, both, or whatever else you can dream up. Of course, you have to be able to deliver what you promise! On top of that, the project has to be interesting. In my particular case, I called the project "The Natural Horn in the 19th Century." I started with the Beethoven Sonata from 1800, then the Brahms trio, and at the end the Rossini Prelude, Theme, and Variations. This last piece hadn't been recorded very often on the natural horn.
Contact was made with a technician and recording engineer. Edwin Beunk made his space available and took care of the pianos (for each piece a different instrument!) Riko Fukuda and Frank Polman played for free; they were also keen to record the Brahms.
Meanwhile, I got in contact with the record label with whom the Apollo Ensemble also worked, Centaur Records. They were interested in hearing the recordings once they were finished. Afterwards, they approved the recording, and I sent the photos and text for the CD.
We had three days to record. That wasn't very much time. You have to bear in mind that before even one note is recorded, you will have already played a lot. I was in good shape and had prepared well, but at the end of each recording day I was exhausted, both physically and mentally. Recording is tiring work. The Beethoven and Rossini recordings went fairly rapidly. The Brahms is much more difficult to record. You need a lot of time and a sound engineer with super ears. In my case, I was short on time, and the sound engineer was sitting too close. That's something to learn from for next time!
A CD label doesn't pay you or invest anything in the project. The risk is too great for them - the classical CD market is saturated, and fewer and fewer people are buying CD's. Even at Centaur records, you have to take on at least 200 CD's at $6 apiece. On top of that, you have shipping costs and European customs fees. You should therefore be fairly sure you can sell so many CD's to justify the costs. In my case, I can sell them on my website, through a colleague, or at various instrument builders whom I visit frequently through my business. I play a lot of chamber music, so I can sell my CD's at concerts. On top of that, they count as promotional material and are therefore tax deductible. Through the purchase of an historical instrument, I can throw in a CD for free.
This is how I hope to make some of my investment back. The crowdfunding brought in 5000 Euro, and the crowdfunding platform cost me 600 Euro. Recording and taking 300 CD's cost an additional 2400 Euro. I was so lucky to have each and every person who helped out - otherwise the project would have been a lot more expensive.
Last week, we played the Rossini and Brahms alongside the violin sonata by Schumann. And the CD was lying there - I was happy and proud! August 4th is the official launch date from Centaur Records. Soon afterwards, it will be available on line.
If you're a horn player whose bucket list includes recording your own CD, I hope you've found something useful in this article. Go make it special!
You can hear Stefan’s virtuoso natural horn playing on YouTube
Translation: KMT
Crowdfunding een cd
by Stefan Blonk
English version
Al heel lang stond op mijn bucket-list om een solo cd op te nemen. In mijn jaren als solo hoornist van Het Gelders Orkest heb ik veel opnames gemaakt van grote orkestwerken. Mahler 5 en 6, Tsjaikovski 5 en vele anderen. Verder nam ik het hoornconcert van Mercadente op met de Amsterdamse politiekapel voor uitgeverij Molenaar. Maar van een "eigen" cd kwam het niet, ook omdat ik niet wist hoe het aan te pakken en welke stukken ik dan zou willen opnemen.
In 2013 zegde ik mijn baan op. Het ging niet goed met het orkest, door zware bezuinigingen, en het ging niet goed met mij. Ik wilde nog wat anders. Ik nam een sabatical en vond door het spelen op een Millereau natuurhoorn, die ik van Lowell Greer kocht, het plezier terug in de muziek. Al gauw werd mijn agenda voller met natuurhoorn werkzaamheden. Spelen met geweldige groepen als het Orkest vd Achttiende Eeuw, Apollo ensemble, Anima Eterna en vele anderen. Ook kreeg ik een ruimere aanstelling bij het conservatorium van Zwolle én ik begon een ander project waar ik al heel lang over dacht. Ik wilde een bedrijf waar enthousiaste natuurhoornisten keus zouden vinden in historische instrumenten.
Tijdens een repetitie van Brahms hoorntrio (op natuurhoorn) zei de violist: we zouden het eigenlijk moeten opnemen! En toen kwam mijn oude wens in al zijn enthousiasme weer te voorschijn! Ik dacht er over, deed wat onderzoek naar crowdfundingplatforms en berekende hoeveel het allemaal minimaal ging kosten.
De pianiste, Riko Fukuda, heeft de beschikking over verschillende, prachtige, historische vleugels. Haar man is Edwin Beunk, eigenaar van fortepiano.nl.
Een cd maken is tegenwoordig heel makkelijk, als je maar budget hebt. Ik moest het zo goedkoop mogelijk houden, zonder de kwaliteit te verliezen die ik voor ogen had.
The Birth of a YouTube Channel
By Steve Park
Some of the most amazing things that happen in your life come as a total surprise. That is exactly what the success of my YouTube channel has been. As of this writing, I have over 5500 subscribers and almost 2 million views! I have received emails and other correspondence from all over the world.
As a horn player, I am a late-bloomer. I graduated with a Music Education degree in 1980, and, although I was always first chair and had a full-tuition music scholarship, I had no desires to play professionally. In fact, after college, I put down my horn completely and worked in the financial services industry for almost 10 years. I was lured back into the music world through an invitation to play horn in a pit orchestra for a church production of “The Sound of Music”. (A serendipitous event!)
Soon after, I left the world of high finance to becomes a public-school band director and community orchestra horn player. The first midi accompaniment I made was of the first movement of the Hindemith Horn Sonata to help a student prepare for a school district “Solo & Ensemble” festival. This proved to be very helpful for her and she received superior ratings at both the district and later, the state level. This lead to the making of additional accompaniments for myself and my students.
In 2000, I decided to make a CD of some of my favorite music for family and friends. Some of the pieces are a part of the horn literature, like Ravel’s Pavane or Franz Strauss’ Nocturno. But many of the pieces were arrangements of church hymns and Christmas choir music. I called the CD “Love Songs and Lullabies”. It was very well received. Several people told me it was their favorite CD. Others asked me if they could buy copies to give to their friends. (If you are interested in a copy of the CD, send an email to stevehornguru@yahoo.com)
The making of this CD improved my playing dramatically! I discovered, for example, that as I held a long note and got softer, I would go slightly flat right before the release. Recording gave me an opportunity to listen in a very critical way to how I sounded and to work to perfect my playing.
Low Horn - Just 3 Things
Jeff Nelsen talks about low horn playing. Click to play the video.
The Technician – Process – How
The Person – Purpose – Why
The Musician – Product – What
In this video “Low Horn – Just 3 Things” Jeff gives you three ideas for each of the above factors of performance. He’s sharing general concepts and approaches to them, through which some discoveries and growth can be found. Experiment freely with these concepts, and contact Jeff through email anytime with your questions. Download the accompanying PDF here.
Pedagogy - Takeshi Hidaka
by Takeshi Hidaka
Greetings to the readers of IHS digital newsletter. It is a privilege and I would like to express my appreciation to Prof. Ab Koster for the opportunity to contribute the article.
I currently work for the Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai) and I teach and learn horn and music together with the talented young people. Geidai, celebrating its 130th anniversary this year, meaning 130 years have passed since we, the Japanese, have started to move forward with full-scale implementation of western music into our Japanese educational system. Until then, many Japanese studied abroad to learn classical music, which was not familiar in Japanese society back then. With the spread of the Internet, we are able to access to any information easily; however, I strongly feel it is essential for musicians to encounter live music and feel music in their hearts. I would like to extend my gratitude to fruitful articles written by horn players in the past, and I will try my best to provide new information.
When playing the horn, I believe improving one’s ensemble abilities with other musicians through chamber music and learning the basics such as musical styles are important; moreover, I feel it is essential to develop vibrancy of the sound. In addition to this, listening to your own sound with your ears and finding the right point of resonance are the necessary steps to improve horn playing.
Acoustically speaking, we all know how the "dents" on our instrument and its structure prevent us from playing the right pitch and sound. The movement and the position of rotary valves affect the vibrancy of the sound, and we all need to be aware of both the structure of the instrument and the maintenance methods. Parallel to the musical approach to the horn, I invite and work closely with a licensed physical therapist, implementing a physical therapy approach to horn playing at the university.
There is an important relationship between the breathing, posture, and attitude, when playing the horn. When we are able to breathe smoothly as we play the horn, it has a positive impact both physically and mentally.
In order to acquire knowledge of basic medicine, we learn from kinematics, physiology, anatomy, posture, circulation (heart) and respiration (lung), sensory system, etc. Surprisingly, there are many students who are not aware of the right position of the diaphragm and/or how it moves. In our classes, students learn about the position and center of gravity responsible for balancing our bodies. The students not only learn from texts and figures, but they actually feel their bodies by moving their bodies through exercise and stretching. Somatic sensory awareness plays an important role in order to realize the relationship between the body movements and center of gravity.
Somatic sensory awareness is one of the most important elements in order to control and keep the good posture, and I believe that developing somatic sensory awareness is very important when playing the horn. This physical therapy approach is very simple, reproducible, and universal. We also learn about “self-care,” which helps musicians to care for themselves in order to continue stable performance.
Through the classes I have given in the past two years, changes of students’ postures and attitudes are seen with improvements of the sounds and techniques. By developing the somatic sensory awareness and forming the good habit of listening to the vibrancy of sound, the level in which students realize and feel the quality and color of sounds seems to increase greatly. I strongly believe that working on educational research, not only from the musical approach, but also with a special team of physical therapists and instrument makers, are inevitable for the future improvement of horn performance and expression.
Takeshi Hidaka studied economics at Nagasaki University and horn in Tokyo and Maastricht. His teachers include E. Penzel, W. Sanders, Kozo Moriyama, Makoto Yamada, and Yasunori Tahara. He joined the NHK Symphony Orchestra in 2005 and became acting principal in 2008. Since 2013, he is associate professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts and has had a distinguished solo, chamber music, and recording career.
http://hidaka.conmoto.jp
Pedagogy - Takeshi Hidaka
IHSニュースレターをご覧の皆様こんにちは。今回アプ・コスター教授より、寄稿する機会を賜りましたこと、深く感謝申し上げます。
私は現在、東京藝術大学に勤めています。ホルンを通じて才能豊かな学生達と音楽を学び、楽しんでいます。東京藝術大学は藝大（Geidai）という略称で愛され、創立１３０年目を迎えます。私たち日本人が本格的に西洋音楽を教育機関で体系的に取り組み始めて１３０年過ぎたということになります。その前まであまりなじみの無かったクラシック音楽を知るために、沢山の日本人が海外に留学しました。今ではインターネットも普及して、情報を得ることが簡単になりましたが、音楽家はやはりライブで直接音楽に触れることや体感することが最も大切だと、近年より一層感じるようになりました。
これまで沢山のホルン奏者の皆様からニュースレターに寄せられた寄稿文はとても重要で、内容が豊富です。深く感謝すると共に、なるだけ重複しないように努めたいと思います。
ホルンを演奏する上で、仲間と一緒に室内楽を通じてアンサンブル能力を高めること、様式感などの音楽の基礎を学ぶことはもちろん大切ですが、楽器の響きをつかむことが重要だと考えています。
それに加えて、音の響きを自分の耳で良く聴いて、うまく共鳴するポイントを見つけ出すことが上達への一歩だと考えています。
楽器の「凹み」が音響学上正しい音程や響きを阻害することは明らかにされています。ロータリーの動きの良し悪しや位置のずれが響きに影響することから、私たちが楽器の構造やメンテナンス方法を勉強することは大切です。
演奏家からの音楽的なアプローチと並行して、国家資格を持った理学療法士を大学にお招きして、理学療法アプローチも導入しています。
演奏する際の姿勢（体位：Postureと構え：Attitude）は「呼吸」と深い関係があります。
私たちが演奏する際にスムーズに呼吸ができることで、身体的のみならず精神的にも良い影響を及ぼします。
From The Munsters to the New York Philharmonic
I have played 4th horn professionally in 4 different orchestras for almost 45 years now. I didn't start out meaning to be a low horn player. My horn teachers never steered me in the direction of being a high or low horn player. It just happened that my first successful audition was for a 4th horn position. I believe I was fortunate to have found my niche.
When I was around 12 years old and had been playing for just a couple of years, I was having a horn lesson when all of a sudden my teacher asked me to play the theme from "The Munsters". This was a popular TV show at the time, and I was completely mortified. I had been playing it at school while warming up, and another of my horn teacher's students had heard me and went to my teacher, wanting to know why she wasn't teaching the "The Munsters" to him. I thought I had done something wrong by playing something not assigned, but I guess she was glad to know that I could pick something up on my own.
Playing in the New York Philharmonic horn section is like meeting up with your friends every day and having a great time. I can't believe it's a job. (Don't tell the management). You get to make music with your friends and their wonderful artistry makes your playing better.
Howard Wall has been 4th horn in the NY Phil for 23 years after playing in the Philadelphia Orchestra for almost 19 years. Before this he played 2 years in the Phoenix Symphony and 1 year in the Denver Symphony. He also plays in a duo with his wife former MET concertmaster Elmira Darvarova.
