by Karen Houghton
James Decker was one of the first-call studio hornists in Los Angeles from the 1950s through the 1980s, and he also taught at the University of Southern California. Even though Dennis and I were both studying with Fred Fox at California State University-Long Beach, we were fortunate to be able to take lessons with Mr. Decker as well during part of that time.
I can recall several times when Mr. Decker would call me on the phone asking, “Hey, I have a studio call tomorrow. Do you want to come over and play some duets or excerpts so I can get my chops in shape?” The answer was always, “Yes!” with me dropping whatever I was doing and racing over to his house in Naples, Long Beach. (There may have even been at least one speeding ticket received during those trips!)
The training I received from him on orchestral excerpts was invaluable. To this day, I teach the excerpts the same way he taught them, passing down to my students the pearls of wisdom from a master teacher.
One recollection that is now funny to me is the time he assigned the B-natural horn solo from Brahms’ Symphony no. 2 to be prepared for the following week’s lesson. In Max Pottag’s excerpt book, the part was printed in the original notation (in H), but it also came with a transposed part (in F). Of course, I chose to practice the transposed version and felt very confident and prepared walking into the next lesson. Just as I was about to start, he grabbed a big permanent black marker and proceeded to scribble out the transposed part. My embarrassed reply: “I’m going to need another week.”
An amusing memory for both of us was the time he drove me and another student up to Santa Barbara to attend a concert at The Music Academy of the West where he was the horn instructor. We stopped for lunch on the way and while we were waiting for our food to be served, he handed us a napkin and pen and instructed us to write out the solo from Till Eulenspiegel from memory. There was no Google back then, so we were thankful that our food came quickly!
Mr. Decker was extremely active in the southern California music scene. He was the host of the IHS Symposium at the University of Southern California in 1979. Dennis and I were both invited to help with the preparations and with attending to the needs of the visiting artists, including Alan Civil, Daniel Bourgue, and two very famous Russian horn players, Vitaly Bujanovsky, and Valery Polekh who was then principal horn in the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra.
I was first introduced to Valery Polekh when I attended his masterclass at the USC Symposium. He stood at the front of the classroom next to his interpreter and played for us his recording of Reinhold Glière’s Horn Concerto which the composer had written for him. Hearing the beautiful, lyrical phrases actually moved me to tears. He seemed to be singing through the horn, creating a truly glorious musical experience. At the end of the masterclass, I ran up to meet him and to play for him. Afterward, he invited me to come study with him in Russia the following year! I still tease Dennis that I could have gone to Russia but I married him instead (we were married in August 1979). But, because of the time spent together in Los Angeles, the three of us began a friendship that lasted over the next several years.
Dennis Houghton, Vitaly Bujanovsky, Karen Houghton, and Valery Polekh; Long Beach, California, 1979
During this time, the United States was in the middle of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. I corresponded with Polekh through letters, translated into Russian by Igor, a friend of Mr. Decker’s in the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In turn, Polekh would write me letters translated to English by his daughter. When I received his letters, the seal had been obviously opened, very probably by the postal service or the US government. But there was no James Bond stuff happening; it was just a student and teacher happily talking about horn and horn playing.
A letter from Valery Polekh to Karen Houghton.
As many know, Van Cliburn became one of the most famous musical ambassadors to Russia. In June 1958, he won the coveted Tchaikovsky Competition, an astonishing feat for an American pianist. Even during the Cold War and heightened tensions between our two countries, there were moments which were transcended by the power of music. The Moscow Symphony visited and performed in Los Angeles in 1960. And Mr. Decker and his wife were able to travel to Russia to visit Valery Polekh and his family in the 1980’s.
Music has a way of uniting all of us, regardless of our differences. As Henry Wadsworth Longfellow noted, “Music is the universal language of mankind.” I am profoundly grateful for the opportunities I have been given to learn from some of the finest teachers and players in the world. I strive to honor them every day in my teaching as I share my love for the horn.
