Originally from Houston, Texas, Jaksen Vargas is currently an undergraduate student at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University where he studies with Professor Elizabeth Freimuth. Prior to attending Rice, he was a student at Interlochen Arts Academy where he spent two years studying under Dr. Lauren Hunt.

While at Interlochen, Jaksen was a finalist in the Interlochen Arts Academy Concerto Competition. His chamber group, the Interlochen Horn Quartet “Best Friends Quartet” were invited to participate in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. While on tour with the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra, under Cristian Măcelaru, Jaksen had the privilege of playing principal horn on the premiere of Wynton Marsalis’s Concerto for Cello, featuring soloists Yo-Yo Ma and Tommy Mesa.

Mr. Vargas has had the privilege of attending Interlochen Arts Camp and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. He was the 2026 Interlochen Orchestral Scholarship recipient and received the full scholarship for BUTI for both the 2025 and 2026 season. Jaksen is honored to be the 2026 John Hawkins Memorial Scholarship recipient and would like to thank the family, friends and mentors who have guided him thus far.

by Randy C. Gardner

Like ripples from a pebble dropped into a calm lake, the impact of teachers radiates through our lives. Words and actions of parents, mentors, and admired adults carry an enormous weight in our development, creating ripples that can profoundly impact the course and quality of our lives, and perhaps those of generations to follow.  

In this article, I will honor three special teachers who had an enormous impact on me during my formative years, without whom I would not have enjoyed my dream career. In addition, I want to applaud teachers everywhere who inspire their students to learn and serve as exemplary role models. They are heroes. 

The teachers spotlighted below were inspiring possibility thinkers who passed along their passionate love of music and encouraged my growth as a hornist. They shared aspirational performances with me, offered strategies to improve my technique and musicianship, acknowledged my improvement, and made learning fun. Their instruction was positive, encouraging, structured, and illuminating. I am very happy to say that none of these teachers ever remarked, “The horn is the most difficult instrument to play.” Nobody planted seeds of doubt in my brain. 

Jack Gordon, my jr.-sr. high school general music teacher and band director, was a young teacher overflowing with enthusiasm and love of music. He made general music class exciting and was a superb band teacher who made band time fun. A clarinetist, he played the horn quite well, and he was a skilled pianist who accompanied me for a performance of movement one of Strauss’ first concerto. 

Mr. Gordon was a consummate music educator who always treated his students equally and fairly. His goals were to motivate his students and ensembles to reach their full potential and to make students feel successful on their way to achieving that goal. He set a high standard for our band, taught us listening skills, and gave us the tools to succeed. A man of great Christian faith, integrity, and positivity, Jack Gordon was an outstanding role model who saw a germ of musical talent in me and encouraged my growth. Following 15 years in public school education, he enjoyed a long career as a church music minister.

In our small town near the steel city of Gary, Indiana, where we had no school or youth orchestras, Jack Gordon opened his students’ ears to the magical world of orchestral music by taking us on field trips to attend Chicago Symphony Orchestra youth concerts. What fantastic experiences those were! I still vividly remember the hauntingly beautiful English horn solo in Dvorak’s New World Symphony on one of these programs. He also shared recordings of Dennis Brain performing Strauss and Mozart and introduced me to Copland’s Third Symphony with me. Jack Gordon inspired me to love classical music, and I looked forward to following in his footsteps as a music teacher.   

I studied horn with John Nelson, an excellent player and teacher who had studied with Max Pottag in a Northwestern University studio that included Lowell Shaw, during my junior and senior years of high school. Nelson played an instrument crafted for him by Carl Geyer. After receiving his Masters’ degree, he played for several years as third horn in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, all while having a professional photography studio in Atlanta. Following his time in Atlanta, he became a public-school music educator in northwest Indiana. A dog lover, he rescued seventy-two St. Bernards during his lifetime.

Mr. Nelson worked with me to solidify my embouchure and build a full horn tone. His tone was beautifully full and resonant. He was a demanding teacher who guided me through Pottag tone studies, Kopprasch etudes, fundamental exercises, and Mozart and Strauss concerti. While having high expectations, Nelson had a positive manner and used creative analogies along with humor to make his points. He was devoted to his students and to the arts.

John Nelson offered me my first professional orchestra experience (actually my first orchestral experience of any type) playing fourth horn in the Gary Symphony, for which he was principal horn. My first concert included the New World Symphony, a transformational experience for me. Mr. Nelson modeled high standards of both artistry and professionalism.

I spent my first two years of college in the music department of Valparaiso University. Horn Professor John Little, Sr. had come to Valparaiso on a one-year sabbatical replacement appointment during my freshman year. His primary teachers were Verne Reynolds at Indiana University and New York Philharmonic hornist Ranier DeIntinis while he was a member of the First Army Band. Prior to Valparaiso, Little had developed successful public school music programs throughout northern Kentucky. After earning his doctorate, Dr. Little enjoyed a long tenure on the faculty of Berea (Kentucky) College, where he also taught philosophy courses.

John Little guided me through Kopprasch, Gallay, and Kling studies, modal scale patterns, and various solo works, and he introduced me to major orchestral repertoire. He asked leading questions that taught me to self-analyze and find my own technical and musical answers. He frequently required memorization. He taught me one important lesson in an effective way that really annoyed me at first: after I performed a challenging passage well, he would often say, “OK Randy, show me it wasn’t luck. Play it three more times just like that.” Thank you, Mr. Little.  Years later, I had the privilege of teaching his son, hornist John Little, Jr., at Philadelphia’s New School of Music. 

In a very real way, I owe my professional career to John Little asking me if I had ever considered a performance career. Until that moment, I had no idea that a person could earn a living as a professional horn player! He lit a fire in me that completely changed my life. He believed in my potential and pointed the way. Words are powerful. That one question opened a whole new world to me. He inspired me to be a performer and supported me along my journey with the horn.

Teachers have the truly awesome opportunity to help myriad young people develop into the best versions of themselves, for their benefit and for the benefit of society as a whole. They inspire students to love learning and think creatively, applauding their successes and reminding them that failures are opportunities to learn. They provide structure, teach problem solving techniques, offer enrichment experiences, listen actively, and open students’ minds to possibility thinking. These three special teachers of mine fit that mold perfectly. I am sincerely grateful for their impact on my life. Ripple effects from teachers continue on and on and on...

This reflection is dedicated to the memory of my brother-in-law, John Bradford, a fine hornist and inspiring educator who touched hundreds of lives during his decades of public-school teaching.

Randy C. Gardner is retired Second Horn of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Artist-In-Residence at Temple University, and Professor Emeritus of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

by Mike Harcrow, Editor

Any successful periodical needs excellent content from thoughtful, dependable providers. The publications of the International Horn Society have these, starting with the many volunteers who work to produce content on all things horn-related. Since 1971, hundreds of player-teachers from around the world have provided informative reading and, more recently, engaging audio and video materials (of performances, interviews, etc.) for the IHS. The bulk of written material has come in The Horn Call, our official print magazine, and in its outstanding refereed companion piece, The Horn Call Annual (1989-1997). In 2015, IHS President Jeff Nelsen created Horn and More, our monthly Newsletter, as a free online resource which supports digital media in addition to print. The IHS also has a fantastic podcast as well as an appealing, growing social media presence. Each of these resources is meant to engage you, our subscribers and visitors—and we, the content providers and editorial staff, believe that we are succeeding.

As good as things are, I am convinced that one thing we can pursue, both to improve what we already do well and to broaden our global outreach, is hearing more from you: the performers, the teachers, the students, and the countless devoted fans-of-the-horn.

• Do you have comments, questions, or suggestions for the IHS? Please contact us! No IHS officer or staff member is more distant than an email. Click the About Us button on the IHS home page and search People to initiate a conversation.

• Do you have something valuable to share? Please write for us! The Horn Call arrives in member mailboxes three times a year (October, January, and April), and information on content and authorship guidelines is available on The Horn Call home page.
  
  Horn and More comes to your inbox monthly by subscription. Contact the Editor with questions or suggestions—or if you want to serve as a content creator for the Newsletter, once or regularly. We have columnists of all ages and experience levels, and your contribution will reach those most like you as it inspires and informs every reader.
  
  
• Is the horn community in your part of the world underrepresented in our publications? Please let us know! We are international, and while we work hard for the greatest possible coverage, there are gaps—so we need to hear from you. Please contact our Executive Director or Publications Editor for direction on how to plug in and be seen.

The International Horn Society exists for you and for us all. Reach out and join the inspiration crowd!

How a British horn player, a folk standard, and a tabla maestro from Gujarat quietly rewrote what the horn can be in popular music.

by Vidhurinda Samaraweera

This series is written for the curious horn player, amateur or professional, who wonders where the instrument goes when the concert hall lights go down. It assumes no prior knowledge of popular music and equally requires no deep familiarity with Indian classical music. What it does assume is an open ear and, perhaps, a willingness to be surprised by what the horn can do in hands that refuse to be pigeonholed.

In Part I, we traced the horn’s advent from the symphony orchestra into jazz clubs, rock records, and Hollywood scoring stages. In Part II, we turned our attention to cross-cultural fusion, following Sarah Willis to Havana where Mozart met mambo, and then to Mumbai where Rakesh Chaurasia’s Lalit Symphony was performed. There, in a fully orchestral context, I witnessed first-hand how the horn can serve as a bridge between Hindustani classical traditions and Western symphonic form. Nevertheless, a question lingered as I wrote that installment, one to which I promised to return. Can the horn truly transcend cultural boundaries? As it turns out, yes, and the evidence is one of the most quietly astonishing recordings I have encountered.

The man who refused the pigeonhole

Dave Lee is one of Britain’s most distinguished horn players. He was a former co-principal in the BBC Scottish Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, and the Royal Opera House Orchestra at Covent Garden, among others. He performed under Sir John Barbirolli with the Hallé Orchestra while still of school age in the late 1960s and contributed to the score of Band of Brothers as the solo horn player. By any conventional measure, he is a product of the most rigorous classical tradition Britain has to offer.

Yet what may have truly shaped the recording we are about to examine is a less-expected chapter in his career. His tenure as solo horn with the Michael Nyman Band playing with amplified instruments, the energy of rock music, relentless rhythmic ostinatos, and gruelling stamina may have taught Lee to hear the horn not as a relic of the concert hall, but as a voice capable of holding its own in any environment. His chamber trio ELF (with flautist Andy Findon and jazz pianist Geoff Eales) further deepened this philosophy. As Lee himself put it, “There are so many pigeonholes…. I have a funny feeling we don’t fit into any. It’s a melting pot we pile into.”

This is the spirit behind his 2011 album Under the Influence (Nimbus Alliance, NI 6151), a track list that places Pink Floyd’s Shine on You Crazy Diamond alongside Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel, and David Bowie’s Life on Mars alongside Tabla e Trompa (originally by Jaco Pastorius). It is a manifesto against the cliché view of horn players as “proppers up, and then sliders down, at the bar.”

Ewan McColl

Its centerpiece, for our purposes, is a remake of Ewan MacColl’s The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.

A song remade three times over

MacColl wrote the song in 1957, reportedly composed over a transatlantic telephone call for Peggy Seeger, who later became his third wife. His original intent was to “mimic the heartbeat of someone wildly in love”—brisk, urgent, and acoustically spare. For over a decade, it circulated quietly in folk revival circles.

Roberta Flack

Then, in 1969, Roberta Flack dismantled it entirely on her debut album First Take, stretching MacColl’s heartbeat pulse into a glacial, jazz-inflected meditation with sophisticated piano voicings and strings. When Clint Eastwood featured her version in his 1971 film Play Misty for Me, it became a worldwide phenomenon—six weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972, and Grammy Awards for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Flack’s expansive, emotionally cavernous template was the version every subsequent interpreter inherited. Lee inherited it, too, and then introduced a third life entirely: one shaped, at its rhythmic and spiritual core, by the music of South Asia.

More on Dave Lee’s rendition and South Asian influences on horn playing in the next issue. Happy reading everyone!