Call for Submissions: Frøydis Biography
Hello horn players! My name is Erin Futterer, and I need your assistance! I am a horn player myself, and I am working to finish the biography of Frøydis Ree Wekre. In order to provide the multifaceted perspective required to accurately portray the vital space she has occupied in the horn community, I am dividing the biography into 3 parts:
- her life story, told in her own words;
- her story told through the musical works she has either commissioned or which have been written for her, and by the composers of these works and their interactions with her. These first two sections are nearly complete.
- her story told through the voices of those who have interacted with her, who studied and learned from her, and whose lives she has touched. It is this last piece of this ethnographically-minded biography that I need your help to tell. I am seeking to deliver a comprehensive, chronological account, so you need not have had a long or in-depth relationship with her in order to contribute (although these are certainly in demand). A simple meeting or masterclass, one lesson or several, even instances of inspiration provided “from afar” are all important and welcome!
Written submissions can be sent to frwbiography@gmail.com, and/or I am very happy to schedule phone calls, Facetime/Zoom meetings etc. at your earliest convenience. Please email to schedule. This book has been a long time in the works. Many thanks to those who have already shared their insights, and gratitude in advance to all willing to take the time to help me tell the story of Frøydis’s place in history as accurately and as holistically as possible…at least so far!
IHS 56—Horns on the Horizon
by John McGuire
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Lanette Compton, IHS 56 Competitions Coordinator
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Greetings, everyone, from your IHS 56 team here in wintery Colorado! We hope you have seen IHS 56 posts on social media, and, assuming so, you likely saw that a few days ago we woke up to temperatures of -20 degrees Fahrenheit! But don’t worry…I promise that we will have much warmer temperatures in late July…no need to pack your parka!
Although we have already announced it on Facebook, Instagram, and the Horns on the Horizon website (www.hornsonthehorizon.com), I want to take a moment to tell you about some of the competitions that we have planned for IHCA-IHS 56. The biggest and most notable addition to this year’s programming is the collaboration with the International Horn Competition of America (IHCA), which has been in existence in various iterations for the better part of half-a-century. The 2024 IHCA will happen July 26-29, 2024, overlapping the first day of IHS 56, with the final rounds of both the University and Professional Divisions happening on our opening day. Over the years, winners and finalists from both of these divisions have gone on to establish themselves as some of the best players of their generations, a veritable Who’s Who among horn players! Make plans to witness the newest up-and-coming horn players at the highest level of artistry…quite literally “horns on the horizon!”
On the IHS side of the event, I am excited to announce that we will be hosting a university horn quartet competition as well as a university horn ensemble competition! Anyone who knows me knows how much I value and appreciate all my years of participation in quartets and ensembles and how much those experiences helped shape and mold me and my career. As such, it is incredibly important to me personally to provide opportunities for our younger players and future professionals, giving them the same chances to grow and develop that I had. Specific information will be provided on the IHS 56 website, including repertoire, time requirements, age limits, and other pertinent information. Please note that any and all members of each competing quartet and ensemble will need [1] to be members of IHS as well as [2] to register for the full week of the Symposium.
I would also like to publicly acknowledge Lanette Lopez Compton, horn professor at Oklahoma State University, for agreeing to help us organize these competitions. If you know or know of Lanette, you know how wonderful she is as a performer, teacher, and mentor—not to mention as a friend and colleague! IHS 56 is fortunate to be able to have someone of Lanette’s stature assist us!
Composer Spotlight—Edith Borroff
by Caiti Beth McKinney
Hello everyone!
This month, I would like to share an amazing work by musicologist and composer Edith Borroff. She wrote music for a wide variety of settings and ensembles, including chamber works for saxophone quartet, string quartet, and wind quintet, as well as larger scale works for orchestra and stage productions. The focus of this article, however, is her Sonata for Horn and Piano. Written in 1953, this piece is finally experiencing a well-deserved resurgence in popularity. The work is divided into four movements which represent different eras in music history including elements from Baroque, Medieval, Classical, and Romantic styles. No doubt her extensive knowledge of music history aided in the composition of the Sonata. The first movement, “Rhapsody,” is a lyrical, melodic ode to Romantic musical tastes, with upwards arpeggiated motion in the piano which keep the music flowing. The drama of the first movement is in sharp contrast to the second—a quick scherzo that recalls the hunting horn calls of Classical horn writing. The third movement is inspired by the Baroque sarabande, a slow dance form used by many composers in the 18th century, such as we find in the famous cello suites of Johann Sebastian Bach. The fourth movement is also in the style of a musical dance, this time the Medieval estampie, which carries energy through its lilting 6/8 meter. I particularly enjoy that this movement begins with solo horn, allowing the player a chance to really shine before the piano joins in after the first statement. All in all, Edith Borroff’s Sonata is an enjoyable and approachable work suitable for any recital. Give it a listen!
The Ambitious Amateur
by Marty Schlenker
Dear Fellow Amateurs,
When we left off in the previous column, I’d had my first lesson in over two decades and experienced several revelations:
- The playing benefits begin when you make the commitment to return to being a student, before your lessons actually resume;
- You may not sound like you think you sound, and the things you do to produce the sound you’re shooting for may not have the intended effects;
- As a result, you may expect one kind of direction in your lesson but receive another.
In my first lesson back, it was tonguing…too much, and too far forward. Great, I thought…something to work on!
If I was in high school or college again, it would be easier to take the guidance and run with it. Zip from lesson straight back into practice room and start adjusting. Instead, I got on a plane…not immediately, but within a day or two, because my job requires me to spend about half my time in Los Angeles, even though home and lessons are in Pennsylvania. And so began horn hopscotch.
My primary horn is a pre-letter Conn 28D, medium fixed bell, unlacquered, with a 17.75 mm Houghton 101 mouthpiece. With the fixed bell, I’m not inclined to fly with it. Luckily, I’d let Dennis Houghton talk me into a new flare for my century-old Alexander 103 a couple of years ago. It was a great decision both acoustically and practically. With the bell cut, I chose an MB9 case. The flare case unzips from the main case, making it very easy to fly with, even in a smaller regional jet that forces everyone to gate check their rollaboard luggage. So, the Alex became my California horn. I use a Holton Farkas DC mouthpiece that I’ve had since high school with it. It’s a great combination for thickening the light, zingy Alex, but the inside rim diameter is noticeably narrower than my H-101. More on that contrast later.
My California practice space is the office lunchroom. The fun part is that it’s very cathedral-like, with high ceilings, hard surfaces (glass, block, concrete) and lots of right angles. The not-so-great part is that to avoid impeding the company’s work, I have to finish by about 6:45 a.m. Pacific time. I aspire to “stay on Eastern time” when I’m out there, and being forced into this very early practice window helps, but aspirations always outpace execution, so California practice is a bit spotty—but full of flattering reverb when it happens! If you ever find yourself saying, “Tell me again…why’d I ever choose this treacherous instrument??” find a place to practice that answers you back with every note.
Back to tonguing. Not just in music but throughout life, I tend to overcompensate when I get redirected, and my tonguing change was no exception. I went searching for the highest-up, farthest-back point on my palate that my tongue could reach. Interesting. I kind of liked what I heard, with the percussive strike that I had put on the front of most notes replaced at first with a kind of squish. But I could no longer find notes that were once secure, and felt as if I had to reset frequently as I went up and down scales. I was going in the wrong direction from the increased flexibility I sought.
I eventually got things under control with a happy medium around the first ridge on my palate, and I started paying a lot more attention (per lesson advice) to what part of my tongue, and how much, was actually touching the palate. Less touch and a more vertical orientation of the front of my tongue definitely helped me get some control back. Travel and other distractions turned this into about a five-month process.
Unexpectedly and fascinatingly (to me at least), adjusting how my tongue addressed my palate changed the shape of my oral cavity and the trajectory of my air, and worked muscles toward the front of my cheeks that I’d obviously not engaged enough before. I’ll talk more about that soon and leave you with this: making a significant change to one aspect of your playing will likely change other aspects also.
I was pleased to hear from Richard Davis of Franklin, TN after the previous column. Like me, he’s a business professional and committed amateur hornist. You’ll get to know him more in an upcoming column. Be like Richard—get in touch and tell me and the world about your playing!
See you next time,
Marty Schlenker, Amateur Hornist
Research to Resonance—How to Cultivate Achievement
…using your character strengths
by Katy Carnaggio
Let’s break this down: the best way to drive results in your playing isn’t to work on your weaknesses. It’s to work toward what you want. Otherwise, all those hours of, “That was sharp. I gotta fix that trill before tomorrow’s concert. The start of that note wasn’t clear,” build into a painstakingly vivid self-image of all the ways you fall short.
Imagine the breakthroughs you could achieve when you relinquish the burden of everything you need to fix and, instead, saturate your mind with sounds you love: “I want that D rich and centered! Fluid trills are on the agenda! Ooh, let’s get a crystal-clear front!”
I know, it sounds so simple. But, in my work expanding performance education resources at the Jacobs School of Music, I’ve found that even the world’s best musicians can at times fear that a step towards love and enjoyment also means a step towards complacency.
If you’re thinking, “Sounds familiar,” I invite you to try a simple, evidence-based exercise:
- Identify Your Strengths: Take this free assessment by the VIA Institute on Character to discover your top five signature strengths. These are unique qualities that you enjoy, value, and embody.
- Choose and Apply a Strength: Select one that resonates with you and brainstorm seven ways to apply it to your musical practice. For example, indulging my “judgment” strength (examining things from all angles) allowed me to track different factors that impact my playing using the Bearable App and connect persistently swollen, painful lips to a simple food allergy.
- Experiment and Reflect: Implement a new idea each day for a week and see which ones enhance your practice.
Research shows that using your signature strengths can boost your growth, productivity, and resilience. Yet, this method is more than just a practical tool; it's a way to discover joy and build self-trust.
I get it. I’d sooner rely on familiar tools like my trusty metronome, too, where hard work feels straightforward and goal-oriented. But your richest and most effective work lies in learning to find enjoyment in the process. That means separating yourself from your fears and defenses—letting go of judgements of who you are, what sounds you can make, or what you can do—and instead choose simply to be present with the horn and, using all your strengths, step towards what you love.
And love, in any context, is immensely powerful and inherently unpredictable in both the best and worst ways. Hard work might never end but love stories do; love demands vulnerability.
But the beauty of this risk? It's in the music you'll create when your authenticity and love blend seamlessly with your skill and discipline. That's where you find not just improvement but transformation.
Horn on Record
by Ian Zook
Volume 13—Christopher Leuba
Horn on Record is all about preserving the intersection of influential hornists and long-lost recordings and repertoire. It is thrilling then to present Christopher Leuba’s 1974 recording of Bernhard Heiden’s Quintet for Horn and String Quartet performed with the Philadelphia String Quartet.
Christopher Leuba (1929-2019) was born in Pittsburgh USA and studied at Carnegie Mellon University. He joined the Pittsburgh Symphony as 4th Horn at age seventeen, and soon after served in the US Army Band with stations at West Point and the English Midlands. While in England, Leuba studied with Aubrey Brain, and upon returning to the United States moved to Chicago and studied with Philip Farkas. Leuba was appointed principal horn of the Minneapolis Symphony from 1954-1960, and again from 1963-1967. During the 1960-1962 seasons, he succeeded his mentor Farkas as principal horn of the Chicago Symphony.
Leuba taught at the University of Washington from 1968-1979 and spent many summers on the faculties of the Aspen and Chautauqua Music Festivals. His performance career continued with positions in the Seattle and Portland Operas, and the Philharmonica Hungarica conducted by Antal Doráti. His pedagogical legacy is reflected in his many publications, including Rules of the Game, A Study of Musical Intonation, Phrasing Concepts, and Dexterity Drills. A compendium of many of these materials is available through Faust Music, and you can also listen to extensive interviews with Christopher Leuba, recorded in 2011 by Howard Sanner, about his professional career and musical experiences.
Christopher Leuba’s 1974 recording of Bernhard Heiden’s Quintet is the first commercial recording, predating another interpretation from hornist Mason Jones and the Philarte Quartet produced in 1980. While many hornists are familiar with Bernhard Heiden’s Horn Sonata (1939), his Quintet for Horn and Strings is much neglected in current performance. Heiden, a pupil of Paul Hindemith at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, spent nearly thirty years on the composition faculty of Indiana University. Much like Hindemith, Bernhard Heiden’s music is highly structed and polyphonic, with rigorous manipulation of thematic and motivic material.
Composed in 1952, Heiden’s Quintet for Horn and Strings is dedicated to John Barrows and has four movements with a total duration under twenty minutes.
The first movement has a lilting compound-meter melody, propelled at times by churning sixteenth-note ostinato patterns. In this example, notice how Leuba energetically articulates the ostinato rhythm before weaving the melodic motive through the string texture:
Heiden, mvt. 1:
The vivace second movement pairs muted strings with stopped horn, creating a wispy dervish of sound. When the instruments un-mute, a marching bassline in the cello is cleverly brightened with syncopated interjections which displace the overall sense of cadential arrival:
Heiden, mvt. 2:
The gorgeous Andantino allows the impassioned musicality of the performers to draw upon their rich palette of colors. Leuba’s very subtle use of vibrato accentuates the dolce connection of the horn’s melodic phrase:
Heiden, mvt. 3:
The Quintet closes with a folk-tune inspired melody reminiscent of Bartók. Leuba’s quite firm and powerful sound is present here, efficiently channeled into the precise and nimble double-tongued articulations:
Heiden, mvt. 4:
I hope that this marvelous recording and the featured musical contributions of Christopher Leuba will prompt more performances of Heiden’s Quintet for Horn and String Quartet to be programmed.
Meet the People—Jonathan Luxton
by Jonathan Luxton, 2022 Punto Award Recipient
I have just returned to Portugal after having been in Ireland for the last 4.5 years. Prior to this, I was first horn in the Gulbenkian Symphony Orchestra, a job I held for 30 years. I moved to Portugal in 1984 from England and delighted in having a permanent job, enjoying the sights, smells, sounds, and warm weather of this beautiful country. As a 24-year-old, I was relieved to have a reliable source of income after the insecurity of freelancing prior to that.
I began life in rural Dorset in Southwest England, surrounded by dairy farms and attending a school of only 30 pupils. When I started with music at the age of 8, I could never have dreamed that I would end up working for an international orchestra and teaching at universities in Portugal. My journey started with my supportive parents who took me to every horn lesson without fail, and encouraged me to play in all the local orchestras. Access to professional music was rare in rural settings, and I was lucky that 30 miles away, we had two wonderful professional orchestras, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Bournemouth Sinfonietta. I had the good fortune of studying with teachers from both orchestras, Richard Thomas and Peter Kane, both of whom influenced me greatly, and managed to encourage someone who was unpolished and had very little musical education to develop the skill and confidence needed to win an audition at the Royal Academy of Music in London (RAM).
I was 18 when I started at the RAM studying with James Brown. I spent a lot of time teaching and working odd random jobs—waiter, removal company laborer, van driver, gardener, barman, etc. I would do practically anything available to make ends meet.
During my last year at the RAM, I was part of the European Youth Orchestra where I was fortunate to be tutored by two of the USA’s most renowned teachers, Myron Bloom and Dale Clevenger, both of whom really broadened my awareness of what is beyond the European style of playing.
When I think back to the incredible tutors I had in my formative years as a young musician, I remember one teacher in particular who influenced my playing enormously. When I was 22, I had finished at the RAM and had done trials with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Opera North, and the Royal Ballet, but I had still not landed a job. I went for a lesson with Jeff Bryant as I had heard excellent things about him and felt that I needed to get someone else’s perspective on my playing. Jeff changed my method of practice and made me realize that I had rarely practiced the parts of my technique that I had difficulty with. I am sure other teachers had told me the same, and to some it might sound completely obvious. But I don’t think I had the maturity at the time to take in the message. However, this time, the message went in loud and clear. It is certainly easier and more pleasurable to practice the things we are good at it. It was a real eye-opener for me and changed my approach to playing and teaching.
The Gulbenkian in Portugal was an incredible orchestra of which to be part. As a result of private funding, we had the opportunity to perform with some of the most renowned soloists such as Itzhak Perlman, Nigel Kennedy, and Daniel Barenboim, among others. In addition, I was surprised to be given the chance to perform concertos with the orchestra, an opportunity that in my experience was rarely awarded to in-house players. One performance that really stayed with me was playing the Penderecki Horn Concerto Winterreise, with the composer conducting. It was an amazing and humbling experience.
The orchestra toured Japan, India, China, Thailand, the USA, and all over Europe. With them, I saw the world, and I developed my career further as a teacher, leading masterclasses in Brazil, China, Spain, and Portugal.
I left the Gulbenkian in 2014, and for four years did not touch the horn, due in part to burnout. When I moved to Ireland in 2019, I was encouraged to start playing again by my wife who could see how much I missed it. I subsequently contacted Cormac O’hAodáin from the RTE Concert Orchestra. I realized when I went into rehearsal, chatted with other musicians, performed, and did recordings with them, that I really had missed being in a musical environment. In order to be more proactive in music and work on furthering awareness within schools and through musical projects, I joined the IHS. In 2022, I was humbled to receive the Punto Award in recognition of contribution to the art of horn playing.
For the last three years of my time in Ireland, I continued to play with the RTE and had the opportunity to freelance with the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast and other groups throughout Ireland. I was invited to be the horn tutor for two summer courses with the Ulster Youth Orchestra, a tremendously uplifting and inspiring time of music-making with some wonderful young musicians.
I never reached the playing levels that I had before retirement, but I loved being back in an orchestra and teaching again. A particular highlight was performing the Schumann Konzertstück, this time playing second part. I owe a debt of gratitude to Cormac O’hAodáin and Paul Klein for inviting and welcoming me into their horn sections.
I think it took the 4-year pause for me to realize how much music is part of me and my identity. This is why an organization like the IHS is so important to me, a supportive network of like-minded individuals who are passionate about this wonderful instrument. For the future, I am very much looking forward to attending upcoming IHS events and being active again in the horn world in Portugal.
