Research to Resonance—On Pointe: Insights from The Nutcracker Stage

by Katy Carnaggio

In every hall where a performer stands, there’s often a story the audience will never fully know—a life outside the spotlight filled with challenges, losses, and triumphs, all carried onto the stage. Yet when the music begins, that weight transforms into something extraordinary: a connection bridging the performer’s unspoken truths with those held by the audience.

This transformative power of performance is something Sarah Wroth, Professor of Music in Ballet and Chair of the Ballet Department at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, understands deeply. A former professional dancer with the Boston Ballet and an accomplished performance educator, Sarah brings a visionary perspective shaped by over 560 personal Nutcracker performances and a career dedicated to nurturing artists. As we enter The Nutcracker season, Sarah’s reflections remind us why this tradition endures: it embodies humanity, community, and the potential for growth, both on and off the stage.

For many musicians, The Nutcracker is often appreciated more for its holiday income than its emotional expression. But Sarah sees its stronghold within the classical repertoire as an invitation to explore the deeper principles of performance. Whether you’re playing the sweeping lines from The Waltz of the Flowers for the first or hundredth time this season, the task remains the same: to interpret. “We’re interpretive artists,” Sarah explains. The notes, emotions, and story are just the foundation—the fuel for bringing everything together on stage with your unique style, presence, and grace.

“You’re performing; you’re giving of yourself,” Sarah adds. “Be the best version of yourself for your audience.” This emphasis on generosity strengthens the connection that makes music so impactful; it’s what allows the audience to feel seen without saying a word. While the score remains unchanged, the performer evolves, entering each performance with subtle shifts in mindsets and emotional palettes. This constant evolution offers an opportunity to approach every rendition with true presence and a commitment to interpretation, continually refining the art of storytelling. Sarah points out that the recurring nature of The Nutcracker makes it a unique benchmark for personal growth: “It comes every year,” she notes. “You can measure your growth against the chart of the work.”

Beyond individual growth, The Nutcracker exemplifies community. It gathers musicians, dancers, and audiences to celebrate the season, highlighting moments of kindness and connection. “The Nutcracker is what brings people into the classical arts with regularity…with seasonal regularity,” Sarah emphasizes. “You can feel like you’re doing the good, accessible mission work of your art form.”

Collaboration also plays a vital role in its magic, with each performance offering a chance to honor the humanity and artistry of those across disciplines. Sarah recalls Boston Ballet dancers eagerly peeking into the orchestra pit during rehearsals to hear the music come alive. “The best collaborations happen when both entities appreciate each other,” she reflects. “We are the embodiment of you.” This mutual respect transforms live performance into something greater—a shared act of storytelling that bridges music and movement.

Musicians can draw inspiration from the way dancers bring music to life through physical storytelling. Observe how they translate dynamics, tempo, phrasing, and emotion into movement, aligning their gestures with musical contours. This precision and intention can elevate your own phrasing, articulation, tone, and sense of meter. Notice how the dancers' movement flows continuously, creating phrases that rise, fall, and resolve naturally. Let these arcs inspire smoother phrasing and breathing in your own performance. By approaching The Nutcracker as a virtuous cycle of co-creation, musicians can reimagine a familiar tradition as a dynamic artistic experience.

While The Nutcracker season often brings a whirlwind of rehearsals, performances, and holiday commitments, Sarah offers a grounding reminder: the stresses and pressures of performance don’t come from the instrument or the art form itself. Reflecting on her relationship with ballet, Sarah speaks to its inherent purity: “I always thought of ballet as my therapy. Ballet itself is this pure, wonderful thing—it was the things surrounding it that frustrated me. When I felt sad or overwhelmed, I’d go to the Boston Ballet School and take a class. It would just be me and that pure art form. I’d think, ‘I love the way my arm feels moving to the music.’ That practice realigned me with my joy.” 

Like ballet, the horn is innocent. Music is a pure art form that can become a refuge during challenging times. “The best-case scenario for you as an artist,” Sarah explains, “is that your art form becomes your therapy.” By separating external pressures from the simple joy of playing, you allow music to sustain and ground you, even in the busiest and most stressful seasons. Taking time for practice becomes more than a task on your to-do list—it’s a way to care for yourself. Whether it’s a warm-up that feels good, fun improvisation, or a few moments of mindful playing, these small acts can help you connect with the enjoyment that first drew you to the horn.

If Sarah’s insights resonated with you, I’d love to invite you to experience her educational work in action. This holiday season, join us for The Nutcracker at the Jacobs School of Music. You can watch it for free online at IU Music Live, or visit us in person to see Sarah’s teachings come to life on stage—a celebration of artistry, tradition, and community that continues to inspire year after year.

by Amy Ryan Stokes

Greetings! I’m Amy Stokes, a horn player, private instructor, preschool fine arts teacher, and mother of 4 in Dallas, TX. During covid, I decided to give a dream a chance and took on the study of watercolor art. I discovered I enjoyed painting in several styles: realism, illustration, and abstract. I particularly enjoyed painting in abstract to wind band pieces I loved. That led me to live art performances with the Lone Star Wind Orchestra, completing album covers for Eugene Migliaro Corporon’s YouTube channel, beginning my own private YouTube series combining nature and art, and enjoying commission work from many musicians who want a unique visual representation of pieces of music that have personal meaning to them…classical, jazz, pop, you name it. Many have commissioned my works as gifts for loved ones as well.

Lincolnshire Posy (Percy Grainger)

Worldwide Winds album

The Leaves are Falling (Warren Benson)

My process is listening to the music (on repeat!) as I paint, with no preconceived plan. I paint what I “hear” and let it all develop from there. Sometimes hints of reality find their way in and sometimes it’s pure abstract. As a bonus in this process, I’ve been able to emotionally invest in music I did not know very well before as well as more deeply contemplate my own favorites. It has also helped me develop a new dimension to horn playing in how I interpret the score. What a gift to be able to combine lifelong interests into a new type of career. My next project is designing cover art for pieces by a young new composer.

If you are interested in collaborating on a project, I’d love to hear from you. Please contact me at amyryanstokes@gmail.com.

Ideas that have helped me over the years*

by Mauricio Soto, IHS 57 Featured Artist

One of the most important aspects requiring attention when playing a brass instrument is the use and control of air.

Air IN:

We must breathe consciously: bringing air in (as opposed to simply allowing air into our bodies, unconsciously). When practicing, I always try to inhale to my maximum capacity. I try to think of numbers figuratively: trying to fill 90% of my lung capacity every time is my goal. Although I use the numbers figuratively—I don’t know exactly what percentage of capacity my students or I are using—over time, this will give me a frame of reference and make me very aware of the difference between a shallow breath (let's guess 30%) and a full one (let's guess 90%).

AWARENESS is the first step. I consciously try to breathe to my maximum capacity each time (and if I don't do this consciously, the intake of air will drop to the TV).

What is TV?
Tidal volume (TV) is the amount of air you move through your lungs each time you inhale and exhale while your body is resting. Tidal volume typically measures around 400 to 500 milliliters, which is considered to be 10% capacity of an average female/male respectively. So, this is the air amount that we exchange unconsciously, while at rest. This quantity is not enough to play an instrument which is approximately 12 feet long.

I always enjoy watching horn players trying an alphorn for the first time (at workshops, festivals, etc.) because almost invariably, they will [1] put the mouthpiece in the instrument, then [2] look at the far end of the instrument, realizing how long it is,and [3] take an exaggerated breath, sometimes making comical body movements while doing so.

The point is that since our instrument is rolled up on itself (to save space, among other things), it looks much smaller than it actually is, making us believe that a little air (TV) will be enough to play it, but that is not the case.

Rule-of-thumb when breathing: all movements in your body should be caused by the incoming air displacing or moving it, not because you are intentionally engaging a set of muscles.

So, let your shoulders rise a bit if needed, let your rib cage expand in all directions ("let your chest rise up and forward, like a pigeon," as a teacher used to tell me), and let your stomach protrude, etc., as long as all movement is caused by the inhalation.

When thinking of air, first check your posture: be as tall as you can be, but make sure your shoulders are relaxed. (I recommend reading about Alexander technique; it will lead you to know your body better.)
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As always, working daily with a metronome will improve our overall sense of rhythm and train the flow of the alternation between breathing and playing. Try this simple exercise to give you a pattern. First, set your metronome to 60 bpm and imagine a bar of 4/4 time: count 1, 2, 3 (set), 4 (breathe), and 1 (play). This will train your coordination, the determination to start a particular note, and allow you to be aware of how much air you inhale on the 4th beat of the preparatory bar. Repeating the pattern allows us to better analyze the variables of the process.
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Air OUT:

For me, the most important part of playing is what happens inside the body, in terms of how much air is used, the accuracy of the compression we create within the body, and how fast we can get to that compression/air speed needed to obtain to a particular note.

When I do harmonic series exercises, I try not to regulate the air so that it lasts longer. Instead, I concentrate on using all of the air as quickly as needed in order to produce a good sound.

Leaning forward against the instrument while blowing helps to keep my throat open—as opposed to bringing the instrument up to my face (which, for me, tends to close the airway).

In general, the better you compress the air inside your body, the less movement you will need outside (on the embouchure, for example).

Air attacks (starting notes without tonguing) have helped me to get rid of unnecessary tension in my embouchure as well. These also teach us to achieve the exact air compression needed inside your body…no less, no more.
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Sometimes, simple ideas are useful: it has been helpful for me and my students over the years to start each day thinking about blowing air forward—to reinforce the idea—as if blowing a pinwheel. We are not thinking in terms of going “up” or “down” but, rather, of [1] high register = fast air forward; and [2] low register = slow air forward.

This has proven useful because the concept of change of velocity in the air while blowing favors the flow (the continuity of the moving air column), another very important concept for me. Remember to minimize the movement of the tongue as well while playing, so as not to obstruct the path of the air as it leaves your body.

Finally, the most important thing is to be efficient, that is, to obtain the best result with the least possible effort (yet we will use lots of energy, certainly).

When trying new ideas regarding technique, always remember that you are working:

1. to understand the concept; and,
2. to train your body to incorporate the idea into your playing and be able to repeat it on a daily basis. These are two separate and completely different things.

Be patient and understand that when we make changes in the process (for most people, anyway), the results will most likely get worse before they get better (since we are leaving behind a process to which we had become accustomed, whether it was efficient or not).

Finally, the most important concept to remember every day: the embouchure reacts to the air, not the other way around.

*These are ideas that have been useful to me and my students over the years. This is not intended to be a scientific article on horn playing technique, but I hope someone may find it useful.

mjsoto@up.edu.mx
https://eba.up.edu.mx/mauricio-soto.html

by Drs. William Stowman and Mike Harcrow, Messiah University

One of the most attractive techniques possible on a brass instrument is a beautiful, clean slur. The hornist, most frequently reading music written in the third and fourth octaves of the instrument’s harmonic series, often has the obstacle of intervening harmonics to overcome in slurring. In addition, rotor valves are set in a large number of possible arrays, some opening in the direction of the rotor port and some opening toward the airflow—or even a combination of these, depending on the brand and wrap. This has the effect of either smoothly directing (moving with) or slicing (moving against) the airstream; and some fingering patterns, like cross fingerings, seem to amplify the effect so that valve slurs can pop or flare without intentionally-practiced control.

Bumpy slurs, whether overworked, slotted lip slurs or the slurs adversely affected by valve configurations, result in sounds similar to playing a fretted string instrument, like a guitar, while what we all want are fretless slurs such as those which a can be produced on a cello or violin.

The harmonic series is the source of lip slurs, and we find more success with it, particularly its extremes, if we imagine it as horizontal rather than vertical. It is also a scale, the scale of the tube length through which its pitches vibrate; notes outside a harmonic series can only be played using some special mechanism (like a piston or rotor) or technique (like hand stopping on the horn). Blowing through the harmonic series can be imagined as knocking down dominoes so that you blow farther rather than tensing in an ascent or sagging in a descent. (This last concept is also excellent for building range, both higher and lower.)

We encounter lip slurs in virtually every piece of music we perform. The tendency, if one is conscientious, is to develop clean lip slurs; yet these can sometimes still sound distinct, almost tongued. Many players, then, learn to incorporate portamento (a smooth, sliding connection) between slurred notes, especially if the pitches are close together. This must be practiced on both lip and valve slurs in order to learn how to balance technique (how the lips move) and timing (when the lips move): too late and the slur is not smooth but abrupt; too slow and the intended portamento can turn into a glissando (see Robin Hahn’s brief explanation of these as separate and distinct vocal techniques), particularly when slurred intervals are larger. The slurred note which simply materializes from the note of departure is ideal. Within the sound you are playing, that next note is already in the room—existing as an overtone, but also audiated—waiting to be found.

Portamento should also be applied to valve slurs. Just as a trombonist must consider how and when to execute slurs which move with the slide motion vs. those which move against it, those performing on valved instruments must be attentive to these same concerns. Valve movement can, in many cases, add to the smoothness of the slur when, for example, using a longer fingering to slur upward to a note on a shorter fingering or vice versa. (In-tune alternate fingerings may certainly be utilized to enhance portamento, and an alternate fingering can be applied to what would normally be a lip slur as well.) Yet the lips are still engaged in the process; the evidence for this is quickly confirmed when buzzing a passage since the mouthpiece alone is “fretless.”

Portamento, for many players, is easier to accomplish on upward slurs, but it should be practiced on downward slurs as well. “Hard landings” on downward slurs are the equivalent of bumping into arrival notes on upward slurs. Renowned trumpet pedagogue Keith Johnson (1942-2020), known for his do-less-get-more approach to teaching, told students that slurring is simply playing one note and then playing the next without tonguing it.

In fast technical passages, portamento is less of a concern. Smooth, brilliant technique, slurred or otherwise, is much more a matter of energized and intensifying airflow. For lyrical passages, however, any flaw in production may be noticed by the listener. Horn players are notorious for relying on “wa-wa” articulations as a safety or coping mechanism (so much so that many electronic horn sounds have included this unfortunate effect). The portamento should not include this; when well-performed, it cannot, since consistent airflow is required for the connection.

Some practice techniques for developing portamento include [1] slow, deliberate movement between progressively widening slurred intervals, [2] buzzing slurs with no loss of energy on what is in-between notes to eliminate individual note shaping, [3] practicing timing and control in both lip and valve slurs for greater elasticity in lyrical passages, [4] making large intervals more “user-friendly” by seeing them as small ones (trumpeter Allen Vizzutti is a master of this concept), and [5] reversing articulations in practice, i.e. tonguing slurred passages and slurring tongued passages. Additionally, find models to emulate—and not just horn players. Great vocalists and string players can be wonderful sources for study. Last, record yourself regularly and evaluate your progress in creating captivating, singing slurs.

For nearly 20 years, Bill Stowman and Mike Harcrow have been working together leading the Brass Department at Messiah University in south-central Pennsylvania. Sharing their differing backgrounds and concepts has led to a comprehensive yet cohesive approach to brass pedagogy, and a high percentage of their graduates go on to pursue advanced degrees in music and professional playing careers. A highlight of their collaboration was the release of their Brass Department CD Luminosity, which—in addition to some 20th-century brass ensemble standards and the outstanding commissioned title track by James Stephenson—features primarily works of Giovanni Gabrieli. Enjoy this sample track from that recording.