by Ellie Jenkins
Hi everyone! My old friend Mike Harcrow asked me to introduce myself officially by way of this Meet the People column, so here is a bit about me and my lifetime of membership in the IHS.
I live in north Georgia, U.S.A., very near Chattanooga. I’m originally from Georgia, but from a very different part of it, the coastal islands. That’s where I first learned to play horn. I currently teach a great group of horn students at Berry College (fun fact: Berry sits on the largest campus in the world at 27,000 acres), along with other music classes at Dalton State College. I play my horn everywhere that will have me, including lots of orchestras, churches, and freelance ensembles. Karl Hill built a Geyer model horn for me in 2000, and it continues to serve me well. I’ve had the opportunity to play it in many amazing places including Taiwan, Brazil, Italy, Austria, and the Many Glacier Lodge in Montana.
In 2020, I began seriously studying natural horn and am pleased to say that I’m starting to feel fluent without valves. Honestly, I have covid to thank for giving me the time to devote nearly a year to playing natural horn almost exclusively while the world was shut down. I had great instruction (and moral support) from Anneke Scott as I was bumbling around in those early months. Now, I am continually looking for excuses to play my natural horn and for new music to learn—or old music that I learned on modern horn that was written for instruments without valves (like anything by Gallay).
I have been a member of the International Horn Society for many years since discovering its existence while at the University of Miami (where I met Mike). I remember being astonished when I first learned that there was a whole MAGAZINE devoted to the horn and horn playing. Until then, I’d never imagined such a thing. I sat on the floor of the school music library, pouring through issue after issue! In a world with no internet, no worldwide web, no cell phones, and no social media, The Horn Call opened a portal to information and people I had never heard of—and couldn’t get enough of. I went to my first International Horn Symposium in Kansas City at the prodding of my teacher, Doug Hill. (Keep scrolling to check out the interview with Professor Hill in this issue.) There, I played in ensembles with horn players who were already legends to me, and I got to hear concerts by both rising stars and renowned artists. I got to try what seemed like every horn and mouthpiece on the planet, and I bought more music than I could afford.
Thinking back, the International Horn Society has been with me every step of my journey since then. Most importantly, it helped to introduce me to “horn people” of all types. Those are the people who introduced me to new music, new players, new techniques, and new ways of thinking about the horn. A few years later, The Horn Call became the starting point of research for my doctoral project.
Even so, I now find myself with roles inside the IHS that I never anticipated: I’m on the committee for Online Music Sales, and I also edit a regular column in The Horn Call, “COR Values,” which spotlights our all-important vendors, those that sell and service all things horn-related. (Don’t tell anyone, but interviewing gives me a great excuse to talk to people whom I’d otherwise feel like I was bothering!)
If you’ve discovered the International Horn Society here at Horn and More, why not join now? Access all that Ellie finds so exciting, intriguing, and challenging! MH
