Meet the People—Horn and More Proofreader

by Heather Thayer

Happy October, horn friends! A few months ago, I was pleased to be asked by my dear friend Mike Harcrow to be a part of the Horn and More team. I enjoy getting a first look at the newsletter as I proofread the articles, and I am thrilled to be a small part of our vibrant, friendly, and active horn community.

As is typical for many of us, my experience with the International Horn Society began when my undergraduate horn professor, Dr. Willard Zirk, took us to events like regional workshops and the International Horn Competition. As a young horn player, I was deeply impressed by the amount of information and experiences available as well as the community and relationships built among horn players from all over the world. Since those early days, I have continued to attend and perform at regional workshops and international symposia. Two of my recent performances took place last year with the Arkansas Professors Quartet at the Mid-South Horn Workshop in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and with the HornPipe Duo (flute and horn duet) at the 55th International Horn Symposium in Montréal.

After earning my music degrees (BS in Music, Eastern Michigan University, MM in Horn Performance and Music Theory, Bowling Green State University, and DMA in Horn, University of North Texas), I have had the honor to spend my life working with college students as a horn, aural skills, and music theory professor. I began my college teaching career at Ouachita Baptist University, and I am currently at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. I deeply cherish the opportunity to assist all of our music majors grow as musicians and find their place in the world. While here in Arkadelphia, I have developed a deep love of chamber music and have made it my focus for performance. I perform with my colleagues at HSU and in the HornPipe Duo, and I am the founder of the Arkadelphia Chamber Players which has performed several concerts for our students and community members. I enjoy performing with the Natural State Brass Band in Little Rock, Arkansas and the Lone Star Wind Orchestra in Dallas, Texas. For fun, I love playing alphorn quartets in South Dakota with Amy Laursen, Todd Cranson, and Kurt Hackemer. 

I wish you all the best as you prepare for rehearsals, performances, and classes this year. I hope to meet many of you in Colorado this summer for IHS 56! 

by Lisa Bontrager, IHS Advisory Council Member

This afternoon, I enjoyed the faculty horn recital of Dr. Sarah Schouten at the Penn State School of Music. Sarah is both my former student and my successor. She played beautifully and boldly. A favorite piece was When I’m Older, by Shanyse Strickland (vol. 6 no. 1, vol. 6 no. 4, vol. 8 no. 12). It allured me into a reflection on my career and what may be ahead for me. After two horn degrees at University of Michigan, I spent two years freelancing in the Cincinnati area, then 37 years teaching and performing at Penn State. And now, I’ve been retired from that job for 3 semesters. I chose to retire on the early side, after a long stint with aging parents and their exhausting care. So now…I am still playing and traveling and teaching, and I am so grateful.

The best things about a horn career are music and people. Playing in a horn section, or in my case, playing tons of chamber music, is a great way to make deep and lasting friendships. Horn players know how to “lean in” and support one another, and I love that! Teaching scores of students has been unbelievably rewarding and that, certainly, is really all about the people. I am going to have the opportunity to keep it going with my ’23-24 position at the University of Kentucky with a Recurring Guest Artist Residency where I will augment the work of Dr. Melanie Kjellsen. I head to Lexington next week and I can’t wait. (If anyone needs a sabbatical or short-term replacement, please give me a call!)

Another recent highpoint was attending the 55th annual IHS Symposium in Montréal. Again, the music and horn playing were inspiring, and seeing old friends was energizing. My weeks are filled with just enough performing as I continue to play in the Pennsylvania Chamber Orchestra (moving down to second horn has been awesome), Penns Woods Music Festival, Masterworks Festival, and in my position as third horn in the Punta Gorda (Florida) Symphony. I even have a “reunion” gig with the Millennium Brass coming up later this month.

These playing and teaching opportunities keep me moving forward, practicing, seeing old friends, and meeting new ones. I am grateful to be exhausted by three darling grandbabies, ages 3 and under. I am blessed, and “when I’m older,” I hope to continue to enjoy both music and friends.

I made a CD in honor of my aging father who loved hymns. Please enjoy his favorite, It is Well With My Soul.

From Europe—Swiss Faces

 by the Geneva Brass, Christophe Sturzenegger, hornist

For this album, the Geneva Brass wanted to highlight Swiss cre­ations by recording only original pieces for brass quintet by Swiss composers, so we let the composers present their works to us. Just like the famous Swiss army knife, the Geneva Brass is multi-purpose and multi-talented. The ensemble’s warm, distinctive sound shines while sharply interpreting a Bach fugue, sweetly whispering a Cosma ballad, or gently humming a traditional Alphorn melody. The ensemble can be powerful when playing alongside an organ or a big band but can also be soft and tender when accompanying a choir, panpipes, or even a harp. The Geneva-based brass chamber ensemble is an ardent promoter of Swiss culture and regularly commissions new pieces to expand its repertoire.

Please enjoy this track from the album:

Swiss Faces is available in its entirety on:

https://www.claves.ch/products/swiss-faces-geneva-brass

https://open.spotify.com/intl-fr/album/4Qn3sYACyvPWwbZ7DTBlQz

by Gary Kuo

(photo credit Aaron Weber)

Facebook’s 10-Year Challenge invites participants to compare and share portraits of themselves from a decade ago with those taken recently. While I don’t believe my physical appearance has changed much since 2012, one thing definitely has: the number of real world friends I’ve made who are horn players. When reflecting on the meaningful connections I’ve established since the launch of social media, I’m delighted and amazed at how many corno compadres I now have. I don’t even play the horn.

I’ve always had a curiosity for all things mechanical, including instruments. Having started violin in third grade, I understood how each member of the string family worked. It was the intricate key and valve design of the winds and brass, however, that would continue to fascinate me over the years. As a result, I would occasionally let my mind wander during youth orchestra and marvel at how brass players could produce so many notes with so few “buttons” and how horns worked so well in the disco versions of “Star Wars” and “Close Encounters.” There’s nobility in their sound I thought, gazing at their complex network of pipes that were both beautiful and a bit daunting.

During my undergraduate years at Juilliard, I spent a summer as concertmaster of the All-American College Orchestra at Walt Disney World, where I got to see just how versatile musicians in the other sections could be. It was enlightening to try and grasp the concepts of transposition and doubling and seeing my colleagues perform those skills with ease inspired me to learn more. Exposed to a wider range of genres, I began listening to music from an entirely different perspective. Instruments, both electronic and acoustic, became individual colors within a massive tapestry of sound, and there was so much more to discover: my existing love of blinking lights, knobs, and switches had evolved into a passion for creating new music. The following year, I completed my bachelor’s in performance and went on to pursue a master’s in composition for film and television.

After graduating from the two-year Media Writing and Production program at the University of Miami in Florida, I moved to Los Angeles, where I began composing for network TV and played violin as a freelancer, doing session work on occasion. Performing on soundtracks gave me the rare opportunity to see some of the industry’s greatest composers and recording artists in action. I often had the privilege of watching studio legend James Thatcher play and lead his section as they produced that amazing Hollywood sound we’ve come to know and love. It was also the first time I really took note of the steps required to remove water from a horn. If you ever write for that instrument, I told myself subconsciously, give the performer enough time at regular intervals to execute all those moves with care and precision.

And that sound. Hearing all those horns playing together? It was a sonic experience I would never forget.

The exclusive use of technology by composers, while convenient and frequently expected, sadly removes human interaction from the creative process. So, when Dr. Michael Harcrow, professor of horn at Messiah University and a good friend from graduate school, reached out in 2012 and asked me to write something for his students, I welcomed the opportunity. “What’s the instrumentation?” I asked. “Just horns,” he replied. Really? Is that a thing, I wondered? After doing a little research, I learned it was not only a thing, but also a very, very beautiful thing. Recalling my experience sitting near the horns on the scoring stage, I was eager to create a work that might incorporate some of the most gorgeous sounds I had heard over the years.

In the summer of 2013, Mike’s students premiered “Mountain Spires” for six-part horn choir at the 45th International Horn Symposium in Memphis, Tennessee. I was honored to have my music included in their program and excited that they won second place in the large ensemble competition. Little did I know that Mike’s invitation for me to contribute to this weeklong celebration of all things horn would profoundly change my life and open up a whole new world of possibilities and friendships.

The first two horn professors to reach out asking about my piece were Tulsa Symphony member Lanette Lopez Compton and Canadian Brass member Jeff Nelsen who teach at Oklahoma State University and Indiana University, respectively. Their interest and enthusiastic support were heartwarming and the thought that I might have something to offer educators was really exciting. I owe much of the direction I’ve received in life to my music teachers and I’m convinced that, without their guidance and wisdom, I’d have wandered off aimlessly like some buggy video game character. So, along with a performance and recording generously provided by Los Angeles-based hornist and engineer Preston Shepard, I released the music online. (You can hear Mr. Shepard’s performance here. MH)

Before long, I started connecting with professors and students across the United States as they heard about and began programming my five-minute piece in their studio recitals and concerts. It was a blast and so very satisfying. Most of what I compose, television underscore, is produced in complete isolation and often so quickly I forget what I did just a few hours ago. Writing concert music, by contrast, places me in a different frame of mind and provides far more time to savor the entire process. In addition, the feeling of knowing one’s work will be performed for an audience is akin to seeing your child return from a birthday party with a big smile and a fistful of colorful balloons.

The 47th International Horn Symposium was scheduled to take place in Los Angeles so Mike suggested I attend. Annie Bosler, who was co-host of the annual event and Jeff, who was then president of the International Horn Society, thought I should write something for Jeff to perform as soloist with concert band. By now, I had been invited to the Facebook Horn People group, where I was learning a lot more about this great instrument, as well as some of the technical challenges and musical preferences of its members, both amateur and professional. I knew there could be no offbeats in this new work. No, this composition was going to be one in which all horns on stage would be heard.

In August of 2015, Jeff gave the world premiere performance of “Wingspan” with the Colburn School Adult Wind Ensemble in the closing concert of IHS 47. It was a fantastic way to end the week. I had spent the previous few days listening to interviews, performances, and meeting many of the new friends I had made since the release of “Mountain Spires.” It was also fun to rub elbows with a few superstars, including Jeff. He and I had spoken about his new piece in the months before the convention, but being able to spend time with him in person, watch him work, and hear his thoughts about other artist-related topics, was extra special.

That academic year, the University of Kansas Wind Ensemble led by Dr. Paul Popiel accompanied Jeff in a second performance of “Wingspan” which I shared on YouTube. In the months following the release of the video, I felt as if a wish from my days as a teen was becoming a reality: I was finally getting a chance to work with the kids in band. Horn players, from high school students to seasoned professionals, along with their teachers and music directors, were discovering and performing my little piece, and with each concert came an opportunity for me to meet someone new, learn about another school or community group, and in the case of international artists, use Google Translate. In 2019, “Wingspan” went on tour throughout America with several military bands including the United States Army Field Band. I had heard soloist Sergeant Major Robert Cherry and his fellow horn players perform at IHS 47 and was honored he would choose to share my work with his audiences. How I wish that my parents, who immigrated to the US, had been alive to attend one of the band’s concerts. I can only imagine how proud and excited they would have been.

My artist friends, who increase in number each year, have greatly expanded my knowledge base, worldview, and further clarified what it means to be a musician. They’ve even helped realize the commissioning of new works for orchestra and band, along with a world premiere at Carnegie Hall. This year, in 2022, both of my compositions for horn head to Texas, where “Wingspan” will be performed by the East Texas Symphonic Band featuring soloist Dr. Andrea Denis while “Mountain Spires,” now on the University Interscholastic League’s prescribed music list for the Texas State Solo-Ensemble Contest, will be presented by her students before the concert. I’m just thrilled.

Although I’ve always known how music can unify and foster relationships between people, I am deeply grateful to the community of horn players and the sense of camaraderie it projects. This fellowship continues to connect me to wonderful individuals all over the globe, and provides some very welcome solace during these trying times.

Gary Kuo is a six-time Emmy award-winning composer and violinist based in Los Angeles.

garykuo.com