by Philip Myers

I had the opportunity to study with Mr. Bloom at the Blossom Music School during the summer sessions of 1970 & 1971. It changed my life. Up until that time I was consumed with the difficulties I was having on the horn. He helped me learn to think and listen to music without filtering it through the technical issues of the horn. This I had never done.

If I could attribute the main thought I got from him, it was the inexorable march forward of a phrase. This idea that most of the time music is moving forward, not falling away, has so many ramifications that present themselves to the curious that I have spent the last fifty years trying to realize them.

At the time I studied with him he had an absolutely unique teaching style. In my mind it could be described as “defender of music and the phrase”. When I played for him I felt like he was literally protecting the purity of his ideas from what I was doing. And he should have been as I had no idea what I was doing. 

Not to be sacrilegious, but to me “he spoke as one having authority”. I had no doubt from the moment he began to teach me that he knew something connected to a greater knowledge that I wanted desperately to know - and he did share it.

He knew precisely what he liked and what he did not, but I always felt he was a very realistic and humble man, and with me as a student, very open. I heard him play about 40 live concerts and have every recording of his that I can find. To this day, if I think about a piece that he recorded or that I heard him play live, in my head I hear him playing it, his idea, not my own.

by Ellen Dinwiddie Smith

Like many of the young musicians of my generation, I was inspired by the Cleveland Orchestra recordings conducted by George Szell. Soon I began hearing the name Myron Bloom and words like "legendary" being used in connection with those recordings. At that point in my life, I had not heard many orchestras 'live', but in 1982, I did have the opportunity to hear L'Orchestre de Paris when they played in Austin, Texas. Luckily, Myron Bloom was playing first horn on that evening's performance of Brahms Symphony #3. The beauty of his sound, the inevitability of his phrasing and the sheer musicality that his playing embodied drew me in and I immediately made it my goal to study with him. Thankfully, Myron accepted me as a student and became my teacher and mentor first at the Juilliard School and then at the Curtis Institute of Music. Perhaps because my father was a West Point graduate and Lieutenant Colonel, Myron's no-nonsense communication style worked for me. Many of his 'barked' commands remain seared into my memory: "Prepare the sound! Play the phrase! Connect the notes! Rhythm!" He often made short exclamations and expected one to immediately follow them. He was demanding but always with the goal of making great music. It should not go unmentioned that I was not treated differently because I was a female horn player. There were several young women in the studio, and his teaching style did not change. He was incredibly respectful of his female students but did not pull any punches. Being true to the music was the most important thing. 

Myron taught me that I was indeed a musician (not just a horn player!) and opened my ears to intensive listening. If it didn't sound good it couldn't be right! He set the bar high. We talked about musicians he admired and recordings that he loved. One summer at the Waterloo Festival in New Jersey, I was privileged to play alongside him. His rhythm astounded me - he was a rhythm machine! As my time as a student came to an end, I kept in touch with Myron (and got to start calling him that, or Mike, instead of Mr. Bloom). I enjoyed getting to know his wife Susan and visited several times over the years. We spoke about articles in the New York Times, David Brooks columns, the death penalty, the nature of true genius - things we hadn't covered in lessons. I continued learning as I watched him live with dignity and integrity. His dear wife Susan Moses kept in touch whenever something new was going on with his health, and for that I'm thankful. Myron Bloom was loved for his heavenly sound, and it is my hope is that he found the perfect horn in heaven. He deserves nothing less. 

Compiled by Mike Harcrow with contributions in English, German, Spanish, French, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese by Mike Harcrow, Samuel Seidenberg, Jhon Kevin López Morales (3rd prize), Yang Liu (1st prize), François Rieu, Jay Kim (2nd prize), Dr. Olivier Huebscher, Bernard Scully, Nobuaki Fukukawa, and Miwa Endo

Jeju International Brass Competition
Mike Harcrow (Adjudicator)

The 14th Annual Jeju International Brass Competition (http://jejuibc.org/english) took place from August 8-16, 2019, on scenic Jeju Island in South Korea. This prestigious competition is a member of UNESCO’s World Federation of International Music Competitions, and awards are sizable cash prizes. Categories for this year were brass quintet, tenor trombone, trumpet, and horn (and even-numbered calendar years include percussion, tuba, euphonium, and bass trombone). First-prize winners in each category also receive a new Yamaha professional-model instrument and a live, nationally-televised concerto performance with the Jeju Provincial Orchestra (https://youtu.be/88qelYRFiXs). This year, for the first time, the first-place winner in the horn division was awarded an additional monetary prize from the International Horn Society. Adjudicators for the horn division were Samuel Seidenberg (Germany), Szu-Yuan Chuang (Taiwan), Quan Wen (China), Bernhard Scully and Mike Harcrow (USA), Nobuaki Fukukawa (Japan), and head judge Young-yul Kim (Korea).

51 of 61 entrants performed in Round 1, which took place over two days in the small concert hall in Stone Park in the foothills of Mt. Halla, a long-dormant volcano that is the geographical heart of Jeju Island. 13 players advanced to a stamina-taxing Round 2; and 3 played the Final Round, the Gliere Concerto, memorized with the JPO in the Jeju Arts Center in Jeju City. The three finalists were Jhon Kevin López Morales (Colombia; third, $4,000.00), Jay Kim (Korea; second, $6,000.00), and Liu Yang (China; first $8,000.00). Zeng Yun, hornist and winner of the recent Tchaikovsky Competition, was also a member of the second-place brass quintet. Sincere congratulations to the winners—and to all the incredibly-capable and well-prepared players who competed—from your IHS family!

As a returning judge, my greatest impression of the JIBC is—as it was 8 years ago—that the future of professional horn playing around the world is not merely secure but actually better with each new generation. The confidence, technical agility, and gorgeous lyricism of these dozens of young players—Jay Kim, for example, is only 16—was truly inspiring. I was also deeply impressed by the friendliness and support of the competitors for one another; and even among the adjudicators there was a heartfelt collegiality as well as near unanimity in the very difficult (insofar as the players were all so good!) scoring process.

Below, in their native languages, are impressions from “both sides of the screen,” both from some of my colleagues on the excellent panel and from some of the competitors, many of whom are also new friends.