Hector McDonald has been principal horn with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and Concentus Musicus Wien since 1989, performing on the Vienna, Baroque, Classical, natural, and modern double horn. Over his 45-years playing brass instruments, he has also played tenor horn (alto horn in the US), euphonium, and trombone.

McDonald was born in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia in 1953. He studied at the Sydney Conservatorium with Alan Mann and later with Campbell Barnes and Hermann Baumann. He played in the RAAF Band and the ABC Training Orchestra before becoming a member of the Berlin Philharmonic 1976. He returned to Australia in 1980 to teach at the Canberra School of Music. His playing and teaching have influenced horn playing in Australia and around the world.

McDonald performs as soloist with leading orchestras in Europe, the US, South-East Asia, and Australia. He is professor of horn at the University for Music and the Performing Arts in Graz, Austria (kug.ac.at) and appears regularly at workshops and seminars around the world. He has recorded solos and chamber music, including Weber's Concertino and Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante K.297b on natural horn as well as concertos by Haydn, Telemann, Förster, and Teyber.

McDonald received the Punto Award at the IHS workshop in Brisbane, Australia in 2010.

photo by Bubu Dujmic

Peter Luff hosted the 2010 IHS Symposium in Brisbane, Australia, at the Griffith University Queensland Conservatorium where he is on the faculty. He is also associate principal horn with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Luff cites Barry Tuckwell as his role model, and Tuckwell was Patron of the symposium. Luff also admires Hector McDonald and the American Horn Quartet, and they were featured artists at the symposium.

Luff was born in Perth, Western Australia. He received a music scholarship to attend Churchlands Senior High School, where he developed his interest in the horn. He continued his studies at the University of Adelaide's Elder Conservatorium, graduating in 1986 and taking a position with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. He has earned a master's degree and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at Queensland Conservatorium.

Luff has performed with the Adelaide Symphony, West Australian Symphony, State Opera Orchestra of South Australia, Queensland Philharmonic, Queensland Wind Soloists, and Southern Cross Soloists. He has published and recorded arrangements for the Southern Cross Soloists.

Luff has conducted brass ensembles, wind ensembles, youth orchestras, and the Queensland Orchestra. He has tutored horn students at institutions and music camps in Australia, Korea, Japan, and the US and has adjudicated competitions at the Australian Academy of Music and Education Queensland's Fanfare competition.

Luff was honored with the Punto Award at the 2010 IHS Symposium.

Anthony (Tony) Brittin was the professor of horn at Texas Tech University in Lubbock from 1963 to 2002. During that time, he also played principal horn in the Lubbock Symphony (1970-2004), Midland/Odessa Symphony (1963-1977), and Roswell, New Mexico Symphony (1967-2004).

Tony was born in 1937 and went to high school in Auburn, Alabama, where he studied horn with David Herbert. Herbert attended Carleton College in Minnesota, where Jim Winter (an IHS Honorary Member) was a classmate. Tony then studied with Joseph White at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

His first job was teaching junior high band in Mobile, Alabama and playing first horn in the Mobile Symphony, a valuable learning experience. He then went to New York City to study with James Chambers at the Manhattan School of Music for his master’s degree, free-lancing, which included subbing and playing extra with the New York Philharmonic.

He built the horn program at Texas Tech from 4 students to 24. His students include Johnny Pherigo (past president of the IHS and former editor of The  Horn Call), Paul Miller, Bruce Gifford, Alton Atkins, David Atchison, and Cara Kizer-Aneff. Many students who started at Texas Tech have gone on to complete degrees at other music conservatories and find work with major orchestras. At first, the program at Texas Tech had no applied music degrees (a performance degree was added later), so the students studied for music education degrees. “I am equally proud of my students who became teachers or went into other fields,” he said, “and am happy that I was part of their development.”

Tony played in the faculty wind quintet (Mariah Winds), brass quintet, and other chamber music, and was active as a soloist, clinician, and adjudicator.

Tony was at the first horn workshop in Tallahassee, Florida in 1969. He had studied with two Horner students. When he played for Horner, Horner liked his playing but recommended that he move the bell over on his knee so that the sound would project more. Tony believed that to be excellent advice. He attended many other workshops, including the third and fifth, and comments, “The IHS is to be commended on the way it runs itself.”

Tony was nominated for the Punto award in 2012 by Bill Scharnberg, host of the International Horn Symposium in Denton TX.