by Trent Ballew

Your horn is tuned, you are warmed up, you talk softly with your colleagues as you wait for the curtain to rise, and you begin to feel the excitement of the upcoming performance. No, I’m not talking about a performance with a symphony orchestra or collegiate wind ensemble…I’m talking about playing with your local community band.

Earlier in life, many of us experienced the excitement of playing in excellent university or even professional ensembles, or we performed at some prestigious venue or musical competition. But after that season of life is over and your priorities shift to family, career, and community, how do you fill the longing that only performing in a large ensemble can fill if you aren’t a professional musician? There are very few experiences that can replace the sheer beauty of being in the middle of a large ensemble making music together that you just can’t re-create alone in your home. After all, just because you are not a musical professional does not mean you are not still a musician, right? To enjoy such experiences again, look no further than your local community band!

My personal journey with community bands began after I left college. I had been a member of a very accomplished university band in Texas. I wasn’t a music major, but I absolutely loved playing in the band as well as in the orchestra. I remember once performing Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral and feeling the ecstasy of the harmonies all around me that brought me to the point of tears, and I wanted to feel that again. I started asking around in the small town in Oklahoma where I had my first job, and I was surprised to learn that they had a civic band and orchestra. I enthusiastically joined and, to my delight, they were amazing! We played traditional concert pieces, but we also accompanied a local pianist playing a piano concerto and even provided a pit band for the local theater company’s performance of Fiddler on the Roof—experiences I had never had before—and I was hooked! Over the next 35 years, I have been able to be part of numerous community bands in Texas and have had experiences ranging from performing in a world-class symphony hall, opening for sports games, playing park concerts, playing in a jazz band (yes, French horn in a jazz band), and even doing a concert with Doc Severinsen. In fact, as I am writing this, I have just returned from playing a Saturday morning park concert at the local Arbor Day celebration. The possibilities are truly endless.  

Horn section of the Allen Community Band, Allen, Texas: (l-r) Trent Ballew, Jonna Edwards, Kristin Long, Pete March, Candy George, Kim Allie, and Carolina Brea.

I share these personal stories to demonstrate that there are musical experiences waiting for the non-professional musician that may be beyond what you expect or even what you experienced in school. Certainly, there are opportunities to feed the musical fire that surely remains in anyone who has ever seriously played an instrument.

Now, I already know a few of the thoughts that may be going through your mind as you consider joining a community band. So, let’s talk about some of the most common:

“I haven’t played since high school.”
This is probably the biggest fear most players have. The best thing I can say to this is, “I promise, your chops will come back.” I took a multi-year hiatus while my career and family became priorities, and it only took 2-3 weeks before I felt comfortable playing again. A horn player joined our band once who had not played in 57 years! I had to show him the fingerings again and teach him a few basics, but in a couple of months, he was playing right along with us and doing great. Sure, your embouchure will be out of shape; playing horn may not be quite like riding a bike, but with just a little perseverance and practice, you’ll be back playing again and loving it like before. Also, most community bands don’t have auditions, so you will likely be able to take your time getting your strength back while you are rehearsing and performing.

“I don’t have time!”
While this may be true in some instances, it’s usually just an excuse. Most community bands rehearse only 1½ or 2 hours each week and have concerts only 4 to 5 times a year. Some have weekly summer concerts as well, but those are often in lieu of the weekly rehearsal. Time commitments for these groups are usually minimal, and it’s really not a lot of time compared to the musical experience you are getting.

“I don’t know anyone in the band.”
Actually, this is a positive, not a negative! In a community band, you will make new friends that share your love for music and who usually live near you. It’s a great way to build community and widen your circle of friends. Also, many members tend to stay in the band for years, so it’s a perfect way to build long-lasting friendships.

“Community bands are only in large cities.”
Not true. There are an estimated 2,500 community or civic bands in the United States and thousands of concert and wind bands across the globe, most notably in Japan, Australia, and across Europe and the British Isles.  

The quality of bands obviously varies based on the quality of the players in it, but you’ll find that most community bands contain some surprisingly accomplished players. I’ve found that most people who will join a band in their adult years are musicians who were at the top of their section in high school or college and are playing again years later because of their love of music, people just like you. You might not be playing The Pines of Rome or Pictures at an Exhibition, but I’ve been in bands that played some very challenging pieces with great horn parts like American Overture for Band and Lincolnshire Posey, or Carmina Burana and numerous other great orchestral transcriptions. There are some very good bands out there playing fun and challenging music. Many are conducted by retired band directors who want to perform challenging music as well.

Membership in your community band can also lead to other musical opportunities. My local band has been blessed with a section of ten French horns, all of whom are very capable players. We love playing together so much that we have begun meeting outside band rehearsals to play Lowell Shaw’s Fripperies and other quartets, octets, and other challenging horn ensemble music. These are pieces that we would never have had the opportunity to play if we had not met and played together in band.

So, if your horn is sitting in a closet gathering dust but you fondly remember the joy that comes from playing in band all those years ago, I encourage you to take the step and seek out a band in your area; there’s probably one closer than you think. You will once again feel joy flowing through your soul as you create music with friends who understand why the smile on your face is so big after the conductor cuts off that long, beautiful chord at the end of the piece.

by Ian Zook

Volume 2—Georges Barboteu

For this installment of Horn on Record, we are exploring a recording that features repertoire for a unique and versatile chamber combination—horn and harp.

Our second album review, Cor et Harpe, features performers Georges Barboteu on horn and Lily Laskine on harp, both exemplars of the French tradition and aesthetic. While the album was released on the French label Erato, an actual recording date is not listed or cataloged. The educated assumption is that the recording was made in the early 1970’s. 

This recording includes selections by the well-known hornists and composers Louis-François Dauprat and Frédéric Duvernoy, and two pieces by a less well-known composer, Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. Significantly, this is the first recording of these pieces, and it is also the first recording of any repertoire for horn and harp.

Bochsa was a contemporary of Dauprat and lived in Paris from 1807-1817. He would have undoubtedly known Dauprat through their years together at the Conservatoire de Paris. Bochsa was a concert harpist and prolific composer, with a catalog of over four hundred opus numbers. He also helped to establish the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1821.

The hornist on this recording, Georges Barboteu (1926-2006), was the son of Joseph Barboteu, a professional hornist and professor at the Conservatoire d’Algiers. At nine years old, Georges began studies with his father and later played alongside him in both the Grand Casino in Biarritz, France, and the Radio Orchestra of Algiers. Georges then entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1950, winning the Premiere Prix and the Geneva International Competition in quick succession.

Georges Barboteu held many prestigious appointments, including the solo horn chairs of the Opera Comique and the Orchestre de Paris. He was horn professor at the Conservatoire de Paris for twenty years and a founding member of the Quintette Ars Nova.

We are indebted to Barboteu not just for his consummate artistry in performing and teaching, but also for his contributions to the hornist’s repertoire. He wrote several etude books and composed over forty pieces for both solo horn and horn in combination with other instruments. His recording catalog is extensive and includes a range of concerti and chamber repertoire.

Frequently featured at symposia of the International Horn Society, Barboteu was a member of the Advisory Council from 1976-1979 and recognized as an Honorary Member in 1998.

As a chamber music pairing, horn and harp were a very popular combination for salon music in the early 19th century. The clear and rhythmic articulation of the harp strings, along with the rich and diffuse resonance of its sound, knits seamlessly with the horn. Of course, in the era of these compositions, it was the veiled and varied tones of the natural horn which would have balanced both melodically and texturally with the harp.

While Georges Barboteu is playing valve horn on this album, we are still treated to a light and fluid phrasing that is reminiscent of the vocal natural-horn style. As a French player in the mid-20th Century, we notice a considerable amount of vibrato by modern standards. Yet his sound his quite rich and full with broad articulations and noticeable delicacy in the softer dynamic range.

In the Allegro assai from Duvernoy’s Duexiéme Nocturne, we hear the harp’s present and effective articulations and how these textures provide clarity for the softer articulations of the horn: 

Duvernoy Nocturne

In Duaprat’s marvelous Air Écossais Varíe, Op. 22, Barboteu plays with arching lyricism across the phrases and ends with delicate rubato:

Duvernoy Air

Barboteu’s bel canto style and subtle portamento are beautifully captured in the Andante varié from Dauprat’s Sonate pour Harpe avec accompagnement de cor oblige, Op. 3:

Dauprat

Last, the lilting melody composed by N.C. Bochsa in his Fantasie, Op. 72 allows Barboteu to showcase his vocal vibrato and dynamic control across phrases:

Bochsa

Thank you for reading of Horn on Record!

If you would like this vinyl album for yourself, they are available here.

by Jeff Nelsen and Katy Webb

Are You Deliberately Practicing Fear? 

Are you tired of walking onstage excited and offstage disappointed? We see you. We get it because we’ve been there, too. Practice and performance differ in so many ways, but here’s one way in which they’re similar: practice makes permanent. If you’re hoping to get better at performing by simply performing more often for more people, you might just be practicing (and solidifying?) the act of getting nervous in front of your audience. Yikes! 

Are you ready to learn one way to be more deliberately constructive in your performance practice? This emboldening strategy from Fearless Performance will help you improve with every performance you give, build an empowering mindset, and learn what you need in order to share your best.

With a comfy cozy cup of coffee or tea, sometimes it feels like we can conquer the world! But if you’re reading this, it means you’re thoughtful enough to seek out more information on your passions. You know that closing yourself in a practice room with your tasty beverage of choice will not lead to practice gains simply because you put in more time.

Instead, whether you’re fully aware of it or not, you’re making improvements through principles of deliberate practice, like setting clear intentions, collecting feedback on what you’re doing, and making strategic changes. Well, those strategies don’t just work in the practice room. We can make massive improvements when we deliberately practice performance as well.

Behind the technical abilities and musical knowledge that we share with our audience lie our performance abilities. Even though the audience doesn’t get to see these skills, they can greatly impact the musical experience. Among the many magical performance powers you get to bring with you into performance, the top five we suggest that you practice and track are:

self-trust, self-talk, energy, recovery, and fearlessness. 

Ultimately, these performance abilities combine to create your quality gap: the difference between what you just did in performance and the best you know you’ve done before. When we are deliberately practicing performance, we are working to identify patterns and make improvements within these five areas so we can enjoy as small a quality gap as possible—basically, so we can play our best in performance, every time.

What gets measured gets managed. Keep performing as much as you can…even serenading your dog with a C-major scale in your kitchen counts! It’s all about how seriously you take it. Then, after each performance, fill out your Performance Scoring Checklist (click the link for your free download). Start collecting your thoughts and data, then use our simple prompts to make adjustments, re-shape your mindset, and start collecting what helps you perform your best. 

Cheering you on!

by Dennis Houghton

Houghton Horns began very humbly nearly four decades ago in 1985. My wife Karen and I had arrived in Texas after studying in Germany on a Rotary foundation scholarship in 1982-83. We had two kids, no money, and no resources, but we loved to play and teach young students about the horn.

During my college years in California, I used the services of Atkinson music for repairs to my horn. I admired what Bob Atkinson and his son Mark were doing. They specialized in horn repairs, maintenance, and customization for the top studio musicians of the time. A visit to their shop in Burbank was always interesting—and you had a good chance of meeting a famous horn player or two!

We came to the Fort Worth area in the fall of 1984, and I quickly began building a studio of about 50 horn students. Things went well, and many local directors liked my teaching, but I didn’t know what I would do for income during the lean summer months when schools were closed and the number of lessons dropped.

About a month before the school year ended, one of the band directors asked if I could clean some horns for him. I knew how to disassemble and clean my instrument, so I figured that might be a fun task. Cleaning horns with basic chemicals and my available tools was effective, and I enjoyed the work, but I had much to learn.

That first summer, I contracted work from about six schools and cleaned a total of 50 or 60 instruments. I’d had no training in soldering or dent removal, so I just stuck to what I knew. I also knew what local music stores were charging for similar services, and I felt like there was business potential—and as a horn player, I felt I could do a better job than most repair techs.

I enjoyed the opportunity to work out of my own home and to be near my wife and kids. My teaching schedule kept me away from home for over 50 hours a week, so being home was a very nice benefit.

Did you know that you can make a full-time living teaching a horn studio in many parts of Texas? The band programs are quite competitive in the large metropolitan areas, and the directors generally encourage the kids to sign up for private instruction. So, for about 20 years I was a full-time horn teacher during the school year but also doing repairs and cleanings out of my home on evenings and weekends. When the spring semester finished, the school programs would take quotes to clean and repair their brass inventory. By the third year, I was taking in hundreds of instruments over the summer and delivering the repaired horns just in time to start teaching again in mid-August.  

Houghton Horns at IHS 54

As my reputation grew, my family grew too, and I needed more income. I would hire horn students part-time during summer to help with the cleaning work, and I continued to do all the high-level repairs, those involving soldering and dent removal, myself.

Brass instrument repair isn’t really rocket science. If you use some common sense, and if you care about nice results and quality work, you can be successful. I did have high standards for my repairs. I considered Caldwell Music in Abilene, Texas, to be the ideal. They operated from the former Conn factory that had been in town, and they had wonderful facilities for rebuilding, lacquering, and plating all wind instruments. Their overhaul shop took in beat up band instruments and made them look new again.

I was proud of my repair work on school instruments, but I wanted to do higher-level projects. Around 1995, I realized that I needed to learn about acoustics, and if I was to take my skills to another level, I should also understand metallurgy and machining.  

Around this time, I saw the need for a full-time assistant. I began to train Chris Reddick in 1998; he learned dent removal techniques, soldering, and other skills. Early in 1999, Chris and I began to explore electroplating techniques for rebuilding valves. There were only a few shops in the country who were skilled at rebuilding rotary valves, and I felt we had a real opportunity. Chris and I started valve rebuilding together, but it quickly became apparent that he had a better aptitude for the work. He is mechanically oriented, naturally analytical, and tends to look at problems from a different perspective, so he quickly became the valve specialist in the shop.

All of this work was still happening out of my home…from a 400 square-ft. garage! In the summertime, we might have hundreds of instruments to repair. I rented storage units for added space, and we got very good at the logistics of rotating batches of work through the different repair stations and back into the van for delivery. 

We all have our individual quirks and insecurities, and I certainly made my share of mistakes. I have a music degree and was never interested in the business world. But one thing I did understand was that the quality of my work was my best advertisement. Many times, I spent far too long on repairs to get them completed to my satisfaction. If a customer had a complaint or was unhappy about something, I would redo a project at no additional charge. This is costly in the short term, but the practice continued to build my reputation.

And did I mention that I was still teaching a full student load through these years, averaging 65 or 70 students per week? I taught in numerous north Texas public schools for 20 years while I built my business. This allowed me to have personal contact with music teachers on dozens of campuses, and it helped build my customer base. In the same way, Karen and I built relationships with each of our private students. Most of them moved on after high school to careers outside of music, but several of them became music educators. As they moved around the state, our reputation continued to grow.

Ben Allen began working with us part-time around 2002. Besides horn cleanings and repairs, I also contracted work on the big brass: tubas, euphoniums, Sousaphones, and all the other marching brass. Although we still had seasonal high times and low times, this extra work helped buoy us along. Each horn repair is unique, but after you remove around 10,000 dents you gain insight. Ben got his experience by working on hundreds and hundreds of school horns. I don’t think there’s a better brass craftsman in the country! Chris and Ben aren’t just employees; they are my trusted colleagues and friends. That doesn’t mean that we always get along—they are happy to point out when I make a poor decision—but I appreciate that they challenge me.

Our first Horn Society show was IHS Bloomington in 2002. I was excited to show my modest selection of custom leadpipes and repair services. Chris accompanied me on the drive to Indiana. On arrival at IU, I got butterflies when setting up in the exhibit room with all the big shops: Bob Osmun, Mark Atkinson, Alexander, Paxman. Our table was between Dietmar Dürk and Steve Lewis…not a little intimidating! Needless to say, we had much to learn about selling; in fact, I actually don’t remember selling a single thing at that show.

Chris and I did become very good at restoring and flipping horns over the next several years: eBay was still rather new, and there were good values if you knew what to look for. We would find an old 8D or Holton and often do a complete restoration: a valve rebuild, full overhaul, and lacquering. I don’t know how many horns we restored between 2002 and 2022, but it’s certainly in the hundreds. This work also gave us experience with nearly every brand and model of horn: Alexander, Paxman, Kruspe, Hoyer, C.F. Schmidt, and of course Conn, Holton, and Yamaha. This type of education can’t be purchased—we lived it!

Our entry into actual retail sales wasn’t until 2006, and it began in a small way. I received an email invitation from Engelbert Schmid who was looking to expand to additional dealers in the U.S. I had ordered a few spare parts and some bell rings at different times, but I was surprised he was even aware of Houghton Horns! My first thought was “I can’t afford to be a Schmid dealer,” but then I thought, “We can’t afford to pass up this opportunity.”

Karen, our son Mark, and I pooled our funds, and in July of 2006 we formed Houghton Horns LLC. The initial investment for inventory was daunting, so we recruited the help of Sterling Procter and Aaron Pino of the Ft. Worth Symphony. Wiring $20,000 to Germany was a huge leap at first, but it now seems commonplace. 

We had these expensive new horns in stock, but they weren’t jumping off the shelf. Our company was so new that most hornists didn’t know about us, and we still had much to learn about the internet and retailing. Fortunately, we had also become dealers for Hoyer horns. These were quality instruments that we could sell to Texas students. The Hoyer 6802 was an excellent Kruspe-model horn, and we could sell it at or under the price of an American horn. Sometimes our distributor, B&S USA, would have discontinued models or damaged horns. I was good at introducing these models (or repairing damaged ones), and we quickly flipped many of these horns. This gave us some added cash flow and the stability to increase the stock of Schmid horns and other premium brands.

Sterling and Aaron weren’t our only investors. Over the years, we’ve had the help of Jim London and Greg Hustis of the Dallas Symphony, Greg Umber of the Phoenix Symphony, and many others. We also worked closely with local university professors and their studios. My friend Mike Harcrow was doing doctoral study at the University of North Texas, and he financed much of his degree by selling several horns he had acquired while working overseas using our repair services and consignment contracts. We have had countless opportunities like these to build relationships with people in the horn community. I don’t have a customer—repair or retail—that I don’t also consider a friend. This is the basis of our business: you would not cheat or mislead your friend. Good business gives value and is good for all parties. 

In 2012, Derek Wright began to be involved with Houghton Horns. He had finished his doctorate at Arizona State University and was in the Dallas area freelancing and teaching a private studio. Derek had done tech support while working himself through school, and he had great computer skills. I first asked him to rebuild my repair shop website. We later had Derek take over design of the retail site as well, and ultimately, we merged both sites into one. Derek became a partner in 2015, and with his help we continue to grow. He enjoys the business aspect of the shop and has great insights and a knack for marketing. 

If you’re outside of Texas, you may not know about the Texas Music Educators Association. TMEA is part of the reason that Texas school music programs are so strong. Their annual convention is held in San Antonio each February, and it’s always a big showcase for Houghton Horns. Our first time to exhibit there was in 2007 when we showed a few new instruments and some consignment and pre-owned horns. We were a very small shop, but we had more French horns than any other exhibitor. Our presence and our popularity at TMEA have grown each year.

My fascination with brass instruments started when I was fifteen, and it’s taken me to wonderful places and allowed me to meet extraordinary people. Through the years, my repair services brought business from many of the principal brass players in Fort Worth and Dallas Symphonies. Those connections have now grown and multiplied across the country. In 1991 when Dizzy Gillespie was playing his Caravan of Dreams show in Fort Worth, a friend brought him by my shop one afternoon. This bebop legend came through the door and quietly introduced himself as “John Gillespie!” I got to give him a brief shop tour and then polished his signature “bent bell” trumpet, a gold plated Schilke. Before he left, I got a photo of him with my crew. I still have the photo, but since I was holding the camera, I’m not in the shot!

I could go on with so many stories, more than we have time for. But the bottom line is that Houghton Horns was born out of a passion for music and brass playing. It’s about providing unique services and great instruments for the brass playing community. It’s more of a lifestyle than a business. I enjoy working with my hands and making a difference for horn players, but in what other field would someone voluntarily work sixty hours a week?

And ultimately for me, it’s not about making money. It’s about making friends, building relationships, and sharing the joy of music.