IHS 58—Getting Here
by Wojciech Kamionka
Welcome to regular posts about IHS 58 in Poland! Start by visiting this excellent tourist website: http://visitkrakow.com. Following is information on travel to the Symposium site.
By plane
Most air passengers will arrive via Kraków’s John Paul II International Airport (KRK) and, if possible, this is where you want to land. The Kraków Airport is located only 20 minutes train distance from the center of the city, and trains depart every half hour.
You may find direct flights from Chicago O’Hare (ORD) and New York—Newark (EWR) by Polish Airlines LOT (Star Alliance Member). If you fly from other starting points, you may check connections by well-known carriers with a stop in Frankfurt, Munich, Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Zurich, Vienna, etc. All those airports are just a +/- 2 hour flight to Kraków, with a few flights each day. If you fly from Asia or Australia, you may also find connections in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, or Istanbul.
There are also many long-distance travel possibilities with flights to Warsaw Chopin Airport by LOT (with direct flights from New York, Newark, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, Toronto, Tokyo, and Seoul) with a 40-minute connecting flight to Kraków, or 3 hours from Warsaw to Kraków by train.
From China to Warsaw, there is a direct flight from Beijing on Air China.
You can also check Katowice Airport located a 2-hour bus ride from Kraków.
Kraków Airport offers many destinations by regular and low fare airlines (like Ryanair, WizzAir, EasyJet), which makes travel to Kraków very easy—and this also makes it easy to plan unforgettable holidays before or after the Symposium.
From the Airport to the city
From the Kraków Airport, you may take a city train to the city center. It leaves every 30 minutes and takes about 20 minutes. The final stop should be Kraków’s Main Station (Kraków Główny). The station is in an excellent location, a mere 5-minute walk from the Old Town and just a 12-minute walk to the Academy, making it a convenient point of arrival. The station is fairly new and, as it is built into a large shopping mall, has nearly everything a traveller might need. Other nearby train stops may be Kraków Grzegórzki (also very close to the Academy and to Kazimierz Jewish City) or Kraków Zabłocie.
You may also take a taxi (Uber, Bolt, local taxi ICAR). Official Airport taxis (black ones) might be expensive. There are also city buses.
Reaching Kraków by train
Kraków Główny, the city’s main station, is served by trains from most Polish destinations as well as from the capital cities of neighboring countries. There are direct trains from Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and Vilnius. Many of the longer journeys are overnight, with sleeping cars as an option.
The Polish rail network is run by a number of companies, and you should be aware that tickets are not interchangeable. Assume that a ticket is only valid for the particular journey for which you bought it. Other than that, the whole system is fairly easy to understand. Note that queues are common, so leave plenty of extra time if you’re buying a ticket at a train station. The best way is to buy tickets on the Polish Railways website: https://pkp.pl/en/ (for all train companies).
The network is comfortable and reasonably fast. It’s also cheap, depending on the type of train you choose. The 289 km journey from Warsaw to Kraków can be done in less than 2.5 hours on the faster trains, at a cost of 35€ for a second-class ticket. The slower trains take an hour longer but cost only 14€ one-way.
The fastest trains are operated by PKP InterCity and are marked on timetables as EIP (Express InterCity Premium). In summertime you need to buy these tickets in advance—up to 30 days ahead—as seat reservations are necessary. But you can buy tickets online from outside Poland; first- and second-class tickets are available, and snacks are available on these trains.
By Bus
Flixbus offers numerous connections to Kraków.
By Car
Coming to Kraków by car may be a good option. It’s 5 hours’ drive from Vienna, Bratislava or Prague, and 6 from Berlin or Dresden. The Academy is located in a restricted traffic zone, so you may use the following address as your destination: ul. Zyblikiewicza 1, Kraków.
Parking on streets in the city center is paid parking daily from Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. You may also find guarded parking lots.
Invitations
If you need an invitation for your university or institution, contact the host by e-mail ihs58info@gmail.com. Specify precisely your planned activity (Contributing Artist, Participant etc.) and whether the invitation will be only for you or for your students or both. Write accurately the name of your institution. We will do our best as soon as possible.
Chamber Music Corner—Holbrooke Trio in D Minor
by Layne Anspach
Joseph Holbrooke’s Trio in D Minor for Horn, Violin and Piano, Op. 28 is the focus of this month’s Chamber Music Corner. Joseph Holbrook (1878-1958) was an English composer and pianist. He is often credited as a leading advocate of works of his British contemporaries. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, Holbrooke composed a wide variety of works from symphonies, ballets, and operas to solo piano works and chamber music. Holbrooke’s Wagner-like operatic trilogy, The Cauldron of Annwn, is the epitome of his interest in Welsh subjects as it is based on Welsh mythology.
The Trio in D Minor, Op. 28 (also incorrectly published as Op. 36) was written in 1902 but not premiered until July 4, 1904 in Paris. The work was dedicated to hornist Adolf Borsdorf who, with John Saunders, violin, and Holbrooke at the piano, performed the premiere. The work was originally Byronic in inspiration with the manuscript featuring a few lines of Byron’s Don Juan.
The work starts with a slow introduction, Larghetto sostenuto. Interestingly, the first movement, which is roughly in sonata form, is in compound meter rather than simple. The horn begins the work alone but is quickly followed by piano and violin. The piano brings the ensemble to a new tempo, Allegro con brio, and the primary theme, a descending motif which each instrument presents. The piano introduces the second theme with the horn and violin responding after 8 bars. This theme builds to a climax before relenting, after which the exposition is repeated. The development starts with soft piano, interrupted by a loud, boisterous horn call. The rest of the development uses mostly motifs from the first theme. A definitive statement of the primary theme, albeit slightly manipulated, may be misunderstood as the start of the recapitulation. The true recap enters unassumingly. Holbrooke tricks the attentive listener by presenting the recap’s second theme in D major. The movement ends in the major with a lively conclusion.
The second movement, Adagio non troppo, is in ternary form. There is a short piano introduction followed by a horn solo. The violin answers with its own solo, resolved with horn and violin playing together. A short second theme is introduced prior to the start of the B section. Andante, poco allegretto moves into simple triple meter and the dominant key. The return is to an abbreviated but energetic A section which calms as the movement ends.
The final movement, Molto vivace, is a happy, light-hearted rondo. The A theme is presented by the piano while violin and horn present it a few measures later. Tranquillo offers a calmer contrast. Holbrooke, as expected, alters the melodies and key areas to create excitement and drama throughout the movement which culminates in an exhilarating Vivace coda.
The reference recording is from the album Music by Three (Albany); Eric Ruske is the hornist.
Book Release—Solo
Book Release—Solo
by Caroline Swinburne
Many years ago, I attended a concert of The Planets, in a large and prestigious venue, televised live to a global audience. Venus begins with a very exposed solo horn part, and I was sitting close enough to the stage to notice that the musician was visibly shaking. To my relief, the performance was, by no standards, a “disaster;” on the contrary, it was note-perfect, except that the player’s breath was trembling very slightly, resulting in the tiniest, barely perceptible, tinge of vibrato. I doubt anyone but a horn-player would have noticed. But I felt the performance was hovering on a knife-edge, and the story could have ended very differently.
The episode reminded me rather too pertinently of some of my own less-than-comfortable experiences on less-eminent stages; as every horn player will know, the instrument’s reputation as the riskiest in the orchestra is well deserved. And I started to wonder what would happen next, if things went wrong on an epic scale, for someone for whom the horn was not only their love but their livelihood.
The result was my debut novel, Solo, which tells the story of Cate, a fictional horn player with a top UK orchestra until a miscarriage causes an onstage panic attack and a famous solo goes disastrously wrong in front of a huge audience. Her contract with the orchestra isn’t renewed, and she’s too traumatised to audition for another one (especially when she discovers that that solo is on the audition repertoire list). Instead, she gives up the horn, reinvents herself online, trains as a language teacher, and travels the world trying to forget. Freed from the tyranny of the daily practice routine, and with no need to worry about the next concert, she tries but fails to persuade herself that she’s wasted all those years enslaved to a length of brass tubing.
It’s ten, arid years later before she’s drawn in to mentoring Sarah, a talented but under-educated teenage horn player with a local amateur orchestra. Like a younger version of Cate, Sarah has fallen in love with the horn and has ambitions to play professionally. But her family have no money and can’t afford a teacher or a decent instrument. Cate is her only hope if she is to achieve her dreams. When the orchestra announces that their next concert will include the work which was Cate’s undoing, Sarah’s big break is at stake. She offers Cate the chance of redemption—if she can finally face her demons.
Solo will be published by The Book Guild and available from all major retailers, both in ebook and print formats, from September 28, 2025. www.carolineswinburne.com
Composer Spotlight—Liana Alexandra
by Caiti Beth McKinney
Hi everyone,
This month I want to highlight Liana Alexandra (1947-2011), an incredibly accomplished and prolific composer, musician, and educator from Romania. She was a huge advocate for the performance of contemporary music and for understanding composers as individuals and not lumping them together in one category. She resisted labels like “traditionalist” or “avant-garde,” preferring to compose as her piece demanded. Alexandra composed in nearly every genre, including a substantial collection of pieces for large forces like orchestra and wind ensemble, as well as a wide variety of chamber music.
Luckily for us horn players, this includes several works that feature our instrument, including her sonata for horn and piano, Intersections. Available publicly on IMSLP (as are all the pieces I will discuss here), Intersections is a workout in timbral complexities and interpretation for both players. The piece incorporates elements of both Modernism and Minimalism, using repeated rhythmic motifs interspersed with moments of calm melody or dramatic glissandi and flutter tongue to create, to my ear, a sense of conversation between three parties—two sides of the horn player and the piano. Intersections is a piece that bears repeat listening to gain full understanding as there is quite a bit of depth to Alexandra’s writing in this work.
Alexandra also composed both a wind quintet, Images Interrupted, and a brass quintet, Collages. Collages plays with timbre and texture throughout the work, using extended techniques like stopped horn, glissandi, pitch bending, and mutes to create vivid imagery that alternates between ethereal calm and frenzied activity. Images Interrupted is another exercise in extended techniques and modern sounds. The first movement opens with an unmeasured, out-of-time feel, slowly stacking and unstacking the members of the quintet and incorporating dramatic dynamic shifts. The entire work calls for a true collaboration between players as well as a holistic understanding of the score. This under-recorded work would be an excellent project for a wind quintet with “new music” experience.
Student Column—Communicating the Soft Skills of Studying Music
by Inman Hebert
As we begin another year of university, music students prepare to learn vast amounts of music theory, history, and pedagogy. In mentally preparing for yet another busy semester, I considered how to respond to the questions naysayers ask about the value of studying music.
For music majors, we possess a passion that drives us to study, understand, and practice music in developing our skills to turn our pursuit into a career. However, skeptics often point to statistics that suggest many of us, particularly as performance majors, may never reach these goals, or at least not to the extent once thought possible.
As musicians, we all inherently recognize the philosophical and esoteric beauty of music. Even if it is difficult to verbalize, music provides us with a universal language with which to express ourselves. With an instrument, we can convey the spectrum of the human experience. (For me, the unique power of music solves any Kafkaesque existential crises inherent in proclaiming myself a music major.)
While we could endlessly discuss the philosophy behind music’s power, many critics would argue that philosophy cannot solve the real-life struggles of the performance aspects of being a music major. For our families, we need to discuss the social and emotional benefits and creative opportunities found in music; however, how can we respond to those who only speak the language of business to question the study of music? Focusing on the soft skills increasingly valued by employers allows us to communicate how music study prepares students to contribute to any work environment.
Nearly all music majors know the experience of managing a busy schedule. We often take more classes than students in other majors, all while handling ensemble, chamber music, and individual practice schedules. Our lifestyle requires a great degree of dedication, adaptability, and time management skills which prove valuable in the workplace and elsewhere. Our schedules require a strong work ethic that prepares us for the responsibilities all professionals must juggle.
To develop virtuosity in music, students must adopt a mindset of accepting and responding to constructive feedback in lessons and apply that input in our practice to facilitate growth. Playing an instrument with a variety of difficult intricacies, we must learn to constructively problem-solve the horn’s unique challenges. All this effort leads to the additional challenges of addressing, at some level, the burdens of performance anxiety. Years of honing these skills provide us with the adaptability to perform well in any professional environment.
Music also teaches us about collaboration. Even the most famous soloists in the world work with conductors and pianists. We often collaborate in both large ensembles and chamber groups. Orchestras can only be successful when all members fill their roles under the conductor’s vision. Chamber music teaches us to cooperate with our peers, often compromising to reach a musical vision. These interpersonal skills serve as the foundation for professional success.
To those who doubt the viability of our major—including even ourselves at times—learning and communicating the soft skills we acquire as music majors can silence the naysayers.
Chamber Music Corner—Tsontakis’ Dust for horn, violin, and piano
by Layne Anspach
George Tsontakis’ Dust for horn, violin, and piano will be the focus for this edition of Chamber Music Corner. George Tsontakis (b. 1951) is a Grammy-nominated American composer of Cretan heritage. He received his doctorate from The Julliard School in 1978 where he studied with Hugo Weisgall and Roger Sessions. From 1976, Tsontakis was a composer-in-residence at the Aspen Music Festival and founding director of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. He has received the international Grawemeyer Award and the Charles Ives Living Award. He is the Distinguished Composer in Residence at the Bard College Conservatory of Music.
Dust for horn, violin, and piano (1998) was commissioned by the Fontana Concert Society and subsequently premiered at the Fontana Music Festival in Kalamazoo, Michigan USA in 1999. In 1995 and 1996, Tsontakis wrote two works as homage to Olivier Messiaen centered around his Quartet for the End of Time. This trio is a continuation of that process, featuring aspects of both Quartet for the End of Time and Canyon to the Stars. At its core, the work is a spiritual one, focusing on lifespan, "from dust to dust," and the associated existential frailty of humanity. Between each movement, "sacred duos" serve as "reflective reverence for that which is sacred from within."
The first movement, Softly Expansive, starts with dyads in the piano and a sustained horn line. The violin enters like the horn and presses the movement forward until Dynamic, which expands with piano chords reminiscent of Messiaen. The movement slows to a soft close and is followed attacca by the First Sacred Duo. The second movement, With a sense of urgency, gives the piano the lead with a rhythmically energized section. When the violin and horn enter together, they are strong and rhythmically synchronized. A second section is characterized by stopped horn and violin interwoven together. The first and second sections return with alterations. The final seven measures have the violin and horn take over the rhythmic motif from the piano, but the piano has the last word as the Second Sacred Duo begins.
The piano flows gently forward in Elegant and Transparent while horn and violin maintain the melodic interest. There are interruptions to this flow, such as Suddenly forceful. An even more sedated section follows, with "chirps" in the violin and piano. The score indicates "as if the movement has ended" before another interruption, more violent than the first, Suddenly Explosive. The final section, Mysterious and Liquid, recalls fragments of prior material. Unlike the first two duos, the Third Sacred Duo is not performed attacca.
The last movement, Scherzo, starts with an introduction in which the horn seems to hold the group back with elongated lines before joining the others as the movement shoots forward. The opening section continues until Soliloquy, a horn solo, alters the flow. Following this, there are melodic quotes from previous movements, including an untitled sacred duo. In the final section, Slower, the elongated horn lines return but with ostinato piano and violin eighth notes. The work concludes with an ascending motif passed from piano to horn and finally to violin.
The reference recording is from a concert at the 33rd International Horn Symposium (2001), at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan. The hornist is David Jolley, to whom the work was dedicated.
Transitions—Past the Finish Line
by Brian McLaughlin
I have crossed into uncharted waters. After more than 40 years as a music teacher, I have retired. Gone are the familiar days of schedules and routines, of deadlines and concerts to prepare, of dealing with parents and administrators, of trying to get students to go beyond the notes and reach for artistry. Life is different. There is a tremendous joy in being released from the details of so many time-consuming and unimportant tasks. I am able to turn my efforts and attention to the things that matter, at least which matter to me. But when former colleagues ask me what retirement is like, I have to say that I don’t really know…I’m only a year into it.
Like many retirees, I entered this next season of life with dreams of doing all the things I didn’t have the time to do when I was bound by clock and calendar. My wife and I have traveled quite a lot, going somewhere nearly every month, including a trip to Europe that was a retirement gift from my former students and their families! As avid outdoors people, we have hiked well over 100 miles in the last year. I have rediscovered the joy of listening to music for its own sake—which, after so many years of critiquing and evaluating, has been surprisingly difficult. To simply listen to a long work and enjoy the musical journey seems extravagant, but it has led to the discovery of an array of pieces I did not know. I am also more well-rested than I was at any point in my career.
If you’re thinking that this sounds like a good thing, you’re right! It is—but only because we prepared for it. I’m not talking about financial planning, although that is important. I’m talking about preparing yourself for a change in identity. Most people in Western society equate what they do with who they are. We get our sense of identity from the career we have; the better we are at our craft, the better we feel as people. The sudden loss of that career often sends people spinning: “If I’m no longer a (fill in the blank), then who am I? What good am I?” We go from a life where people respected our opinions and sought out our expertise to a life where others may not even know our names. So it is prudent to give thought to who you are apart from your career. I am convinced that it is as important to set your sights past the finish line of retirement as it is for students to look beyond graduation.
Experts say that there are four stages of retirement: Vacation, Loss, Trial and Error, and Reinventing (Moynes, Riley. “The Four Phases of Retirement.” YouTube, uploaded by James Conole, CFP. June 18, 2024.) In my experience, they are not so much a progression as they are like rooms in a house. You sort of wander from room to room, maybe staying in one for a bit longer depending on the day.
1. Vacation: This initial phase is characterized by excitement and freedom. Retirees may indulge in travel, hobbies, and leisure activities that were previously limited by work. For the most part, this is where I live at the moment. It’s exciting to have all this free time, but I am too experienced to think that this can last for long. As Tom Higgins wrote about mountain climbing:
The mountains always made the regular, flat world bearable, and the flat world made the mountains a sanctuary. It was the pull between the two which nourished. School and work without the mountains would have been deadly. The mountains without the nervous struggling down below would have been limbo, not heaven. (Higgins, Tom. "In Thanks." Ascent 1976, Sierra Club Books, San Francisco: page 23.)
Too many open hours each day can have a negative effect. I have a friend who also retired, and within a few months he was miserable. His friends told him to find a job—any job—and when he did, he became a decent person to be with again. Some just require an external framework to be happy.
2. Loss: This phase can involve feelings of uncertainty and loss. Retirees may miss the structure, purpose, and social connections that work provided, and struggle to find new meaning and routines. This phase is where my friend immediately went, and it's what I tried hard to hedge against. I knew that—unless I keeled over on the podium, or, still clutching my horn, fell out of my chair—I was going to have several years where I would likely no longer actively or regularly participate in the music making that has given so much meaning to my life. What will give meaning when those things are no longer available?
I will pause here for a moment because this issue is too important to gloss over, and the response to it makes all four stages much less difficult. It’s also what I meant when I said that we had prepared for retirement. The solution is in relationships. It helps if you imagine relationships to be like bank accounts. You have to make regular deposits if you ever hope to make any withdrawals. You have to care for and nurture your relationships while you are working if you hope to have strong ones when you retire. I have heard many people say that once they retired, their spouse seemed like a stranger, and the rate of divorce among retirees is the highest among all age groups in our society. Our careers can be a convenient distraction from the cultivation of relationships. We are busy enough to use work as an excuse for not prioritizing each other; but when career is stripped away, we suddenly see the actual state of our lives. This is true not only of our spouses or significant others but also of our children and friends.
Musicians are particularly susceptible to this problem, regardless of whether we are performers or educators. Our craft is highly demanding of our time and concentration, but it is our choice whether we make it the most important thing in our lives or not. Age eventually comes for us all. I’ve gigged with some players who have spent their entire lives propping up their professional prestige rather than paying into any relationships, and as they age and the gigs become fewer, all that remains is a bunch of cellphone photos of themselves with celebrities who wouldn’t know them if they saw them on the street. They are some of the loneliest people I have ever met. Not investing in our relationships comes at a high cost.
3. Trial and Error: In this phase, retirees experiment with different activities and lifestyles to find what brings them fulfillment and purpose in retirement.
4. Reinventing: This final phase involves a renewed sense of purpose and satisfaction. Retirees have adapted to their new lifestyle and found meaningful ways to engage in activities and relationships.
I’ll leave these last two issues for now. I may experience them as the months pass, but I am also pursuing several different activities. There needs to be an outlet for all that musical energy that drove my heart for so long, so I have done a few clinics with local high school bands and enjoyed them. Perhaps I will be able to do some adjudicating as well. We are getting involved in a local church and meeting new people in the community. I’m also heavily involved with our local Mountain Club, going on climbing trips and teaching some of the younger members what I know from decades of climbing. Serving others seems like a good way to move forward.
These are uncharted waters indeed. What will the next several years look like? I’ll let you know when I get there!
Composer Spotlight—Elsa Barraine
by Caiti Beth McKinney
Hello everyone!
This month, I want to share with you just a little about the outstanding compositions of an incredibly accomplished but seldom remembered French composer, Elsa Barraine (1910-1999). In addition to her music, Barraine was also a fierce anti-Nazi activist during the German occupation of France in World War II. Of Jewish heritage herself, Barraine used her music and her skills with the written word to resist the atrocities occurring in her country and abroad.
Barraine was born to a musical family. Her father was the principal cellist of the Parisian Orchestre de l’Opéra until he was ousted by the Nazi regime in 1943, and her mother was a skilled pianist and chorus member of the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire. Elsa enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire at the very young age of nine. There, she studied with famous composer Paul Dukas alongside other notables of her generation, including Yvonne Desportes, Claude Arrieu, and Olivier Messiaen. In 1929, when she was only 19 years old, Barraine won the prestigious Prix de Rome for her cantata about Joan of Arc entitled La vierge guerrière, making her only the fourth woman in history to win the award.
There is so much more to say about Barraine’s life and career that is beyond the scope of this column, but I would strongly encourage all readers to learn more about her outstanding achievements and her dedication to making a difference in the world. When it comes to the horn, Barraine wrote several excellent works for orchestra, including a tone poem entitled Pogromes she wrote while residing in Mussolini’s Italy. In addition to these larger scale works, Barraine composed a short piece for horn and piano, Crépuscules and Fanfare, which is becoming increasingly popular as a recital piece. This short, four-minute work is evocative of the “twilight” after which it is named. The lyrical and melancholy melody of the first movement is richly chromatic while remaining firmly within the world of tonality. The fanfare is joyful and technically challenging. It moves through the full register of the horn and showcases the performer’s ability to perform a repeated high B!
