Kristina Mascher-Turner: Dear Nancy, let’s start right off with the color purple! How did your love affair with this hue start, and what does it symbolize for you? 

Nancy Joy: Kristina, this question made me literally laugh out loud…

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away when I was a little child, I was absolutely mesmerized by the color purple. This enchantment led me to wanting to surround myself completely with the color, much to my parents‘ surprise. They thought it was odd that their little girl was so adamant about the color purple and told me I needed to wear other colors. As you would guess, that thought process only “fueled my fire.” The color purple makes me smile and makes me very happy!!

KMT: How and when did you first become involved with the IHS? 

NJ: My first IHS symposium was in 1980 at The Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. It changed my life forever, for the better. The camaraderie, sessions, concerts and playing in the Grand Finale with 500 horn players, was an incredible memory that I will always treasure. The IHS became “a family” to me that year, inspiring me to continue to share the love of horn with many people! 

KMT: Every international symposium has its own special vibe. What’s unique about IHS 51? 

NJ: IHS 51 will truly be an inspiring, historically exceptional experience for all of us. From all that I have learned in working with our fabulous IHS 51 host, Jeroen Billiet, we will be even more connected to each other, when we experience the Ghentian Horn traditions. Also, IHS 51 is being held in a beautiful and historical location that will add even more ambience to the week of activities!! As you know, the architecture is absolutely incredible and our hosts, Jeroen & Rik, have planned a week of Featured Artist concerts and activities that will inspire everyone. 

Let’s Wake that Dragon together and break the Guinness Book of World Records!!

KMT: On my way to Brazil for IHS 49, I remember texting you for some contact information. You casually sent a photo from your hotel room there, where water was gushing down from the ceiling! What are some of the strangest things you’ve had to deal with on-site as coordinator?

by Tina Su

One of the most important things I have found in my career of teaching and playing horn is using positive reinforcement to help students build on what they already do well. 

At some point almost every student I have worked with has said “Oh, that’s just my old habit” to excuse a tendency in their playing that is less desirable. Once they realize the tendency does not go away after a few attempts, they often jump to the conclusion that “it’s hard to break an old habit.” When I first started teaching I made it a priority to come up with the best way to help them to “break their old habits.” I was successful with some students who were already prepared to break their habits, but not successful with other some students, who worked equally hard, or sometimes harder, towards breaking their habits. No matter how many different approaches I tried, we would make little progress and the old habits would remain unchanged in the end. It finally hit me one day in a student’s lesson, when we were not having success changing the old habit, and I suggested that the student “try building a new habit instead of breaking an old habit.” With this new goal, the student had an easier time focusing on building the new habit. 

Most of us are familiar with the power of positive thinking and how that affects our playing or life in general. I have decided to take this to the next level by reinforcing the elements in horn playing that the students already know and do well. In horn choir rehearsals, students often play with a timid tone when they encountered with a technical passage. I found it effective to help them identify what they already know first, which could be the scale patterns, intervals or rhythmic patterns, to establish the new/healthier habit, and then have them apply what they know with their best tone. By reinforcing what they know with the best tone quality they are capable of, students are more confident and are more likely to make the new habit stick. Tuning chords in horn choir rehearsals has also benefited from positive reinforcement. The quality of the chords is usually easier to identify when students play the chords with their best tone. I then proceed the normal tuning procedure by building the chords from the root following the fifth and the third. 

I found myself saying “play what you know” and “play  with your best tone” a lot more now in horn choir rehearsals and in lessons and the students responded to these comments with much more positive results in their playing. 

A native of Taiwan, Dr. Yu-Ting (Tina) Su is Associate Professor of Horn at the University of Northern Iowa and directs the UNI Horn Choir.  Prior to her teaching position, she was the third horn with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan. As an active chamber musician, Su is a co-founder of the Wonder Horns (Taiwan), a member of the Northwind Quintet and the Northern Brass Quintet. She studied with William Purvis at SUNY at Stony Brook and the Juilliard School, Verne Reynolds and Peter Kurau at the Eastman School of Music. Passionate about expanding the horn repertoire, Su has premiered pieces for horn and other instruments composed by Reynolds, Tsai, Lu, Schwabe, and Askim.  She also arranged several volumes of art songs for horn and piano; the first volume, Three Bizet Songs for Horn and Piano, was published through Veritas Musica in 2011.  Her solo album Watercolors:Art Songs for Horn and Piano was released in 2014.

IHS Vice-President Kristina Mascher-Turner interviews IHS 51 Featured Artist Eliz Erkalp (in French with English subtitles).

by Bohdan Sebestik

A few weeks ago, I was asked by Ab Koster to write an article about horn playing and teaching in Portugal. Here are a few words about the issue from my experience, knowledge and view. More complex information would require deep study. Portugal is a beautiful country situated on the western edge of the Iberian Peninsula, with an ocean, mountains, and valley, as well as a  Mediterranean lifestyle. Its history is long and rich - from the struggle for independence from Spain, wars with Moors, to impressive world discoveries and conquests at sea. It is breathtaking, the way Portuguese sailors navigated their boats to Africa, India, South America, Japan etc. Here the Portuguese  already demonstrated their great capacity and potential to achieve high goals, and it continues to this day.

When I came to Portugal in 1988 from what was then Czechoslovakia, it was 14 years after its revolution (1974). I could still see the consequences of the dictator leadership for a long time, affecting the economy, health care, education and culture in the whole country.

There were only two orchestras in Portugal, one in Lisbon and one radio orchestra in Oporto. I started my work in the 3rd orchestra in Lisbon Nova Filarmonia Portuguesa (a new international chamber orchestra). After a year and a half, I won the audition for a new international orchestra in Oporto, after the old radio orchestra was dissolved. During this time I already started teaching privately due to lack of teachers. Later I started teaching at professional music schools (sort of secondary schools or colleges for music ). After  Portugal joined the EU in 1986, it began to receive financial subsidies to improve its economy, roads, culture and also education. This contributed to the creation of a new professional music school. At the time I was asked to teach at three professional schools, where I started almost from scratch. There was enormous potential to create new future secondary and university students, future players and teachers. In 1995 I started teaching horn at the ESMAE in Oporto (Superior School of Music and Performing Arts), where I could fill an educational gap, preparing students for national and international competitions, jobs in orchestras and future teaching engagements.  At that time in Portugal, there were only 2 universities offering studies in the horn, in Lisbon and Oporto.

In the beginning it was not easy to teach horn in Portugal. It was considered a second-class instrument, known more for bands. The first-class instruments were piano, violin, cello etc. It was good to teach and play in the orchestra at the same time, to be active as a musician, playing great repertoire with world-class soloists under excellent conductors, as well as playing chamber music. Thus it was not only possible to invite my students to listen to the concerts, but also to be able when necessary to integrate the best students into the orchestra on their road to becoming professionals.