Composer Spotlight—Aliyah Danielle
by Caiti Beth McKinney
Happy Spring to the Horn Community!
I want to start the season with a bang by featuring one of my favorite living composers (who also just happens to be a rockstar horn player), Aliyah Danielle.
Aliyah is one of those rare artists who can shine in any genre and any style, and this is further evidenced by her groundbreaking compositions. You can see the depth of her unique perspective even in the degrees she holds: Aliyah has her grounding in music education with a B.M. from Arizona State and then continued to earn a Master of Music in Contemporary Performance from the Berklee College of Music in Valencia, Spain. Beyond formal education, Aliyah’s musical origins come from her family; her mother is a pianist, and Aliyah grew up surrounded by singers and church music. Like many horn players, Aliyah fell in love with the sound of the instrument before she had ever even held the instrument.
When it comes to composing, Aliyah has a bold and individual style that plays with genre and expectations. One of my favorite of Aliyah’s works, a brass quintet titled In Spite Of…, takes the listener on a full emotional journey. The piece begins with a contemplative chorale that blends elements of gospel music with a quiet fanfare, then moves into a soaring section with quick, articulated trumpet and floating horn lines. Out of seemingly nowhere, the tuba takes over with a funk/jazz bass line until the trombone enters with the melody. The music constantly surprises me, never quite leading where I anticipate (in the best way). This quintet is a guaranteed crowd pleaser, so be sure to give it a listen!
Aliyah has also composed a variety of other outstanding pieces, including several chamber pieces for horn, tuba, or some combination of them. Even more incredibly, in 2023 Aliyah released her debut album, Genesis, a triumph of both her horn playing and compositional abilities. Genesis engages with themes, according to the composer, of “…mental health, breaking free from societal expectations, personal growth, and healing.” Like much of Aliyah’s music, the album is highly narrative, genre-bending, and experimental. Listeners can hear infusions of styles like rock and R&B, all imbued with Aliyah’s classical training and background. (I should mention that I have listened to the album in its entirety over a dozen times, and I am continuously surprised with each listen).
If her musical performances and writing weren’t enough, Aliyah is also a founding member of the Chromatic Brass Collective, an outstanding organization dedicated to providing mentorship and resources for “racially and ethnically underrepresented women and gender non-conforming people throughout the brass world.” If your eyes and ears aren’t on Aliyah Danielle, you’re missing out.
Research to Resonance—Even Your Silence is in the Right Key
by Katy Carnaggio
The wind-swept autumn leaves from trees, twirling flashes of ember across a bright blue ballroom sky…. Every year, the wind came to offer flight…devoted, delighted. And every year, it didn’t understand why so many clung to the branches instead.
Even when everyone knew this was just for a season, that leaves falling were a part of life. For the leaf, immersed in volatility, there was no autumn; all it could see was the fall.
As a musician, it’s natural to cling to the branch that keeps you healthy and green, too: practice. When the tolerance for error feels like zero, microscopic changes can lead to massive consequences. The volatile dance between fall and flight is unrelenting. Your aperture shifts as blood rushes to your lips and muscles fatigue; the temperature drops degree by degree during an outdoor concert at sundown. Audience reactions, unexpected sounds, adrenaline, rubato, the humanity of interpretation, the democracy of pitch… everything is in motion at once.
And practice works, for the parts of playing that hold still. In a stable environment, what you learned yesterday is true today. The fingering for a written C on the F side of the horn is open. You can trust this knowledge forever.
However, in volatile environments, the “truth” expires quickly. You walk onstage tired, the hall is drier than the rehearsal space, your lips are already a little swollen, and the conductor takes the opening faster than planned. The “rule” for how to breathe, support, and land that same C changes from what you rehearsed.
- Stable conditions reward optimization. You practice a movement until it's efficient and precise, and what works today will work tomorrow.
- Volatile conditions reward adaptation. Optimization is actually dangerous here; if you “optimize” your approach for one exact body state, one exact room, or one exact tempo and any of those changes, you miss.
Optimization is trained by deliberate practice. Adaptation is trained by transfer. That’s why one embodied soft landing can beat a hundred “try harder” reps. When you invoke a schema like a gently falling leaf in performance, you swap a volatile skill for a stable one. Instead of trying to control sound at the embouchure, you scan your body; you find where your tension, posture, or breath don’t match the template of “soft landing,” and your system quietly reorganizes to solve for it. The mismatch between your current state and the schema drives the correction, the same way a wrong note drives a correction. Except, this correction happens before you make a sound.
“Falling leaf” lives in your body the same way the fingering for C does: as a stable, deployable, full-body coordination pattern. It’s the same regardless of which pitch, which hall, which measure, or what your face is doing today. You can run it on a G, in your room at 10 p.m., a high entrance in orchestra, an audition final round or just exhaling on a walk. The performance conditions are volatile; the pattern is not.
Without transfer, you only have one tool: the rehearsed answer. With transfer, you have a whole toolkit: everything you've ever taken time to learn, feel, map, and experience.
A musician grinding out greens—bound to routine, heavy with repetition—is one bright leaf in a canopy of thousands, held in place by the illusion that consistency means executing the same answer every time.
Volatility strips back the green and exposes true expertise: the ability to solve for the same outcome with whatever conditions you get today. It reveals a multidimensional palette of deeply transferable skills you’ve built from living a whole life…the books, the dancing, the relationships, the episodes. Even your silence is in the right key.
Volatility is not the enemy. It's not even the challenge. It's just what's true. And it never asked for your perfection. It wants your presence. It wants the specific, unrepeatable pattern of everything you've ever learned, felt, solved, and survived.
When you stop clinging to the branch of the rehearsed answer and let volatility meet all of who you are, it doesn't drop you. It twirls you into flight far past “in tune and on time,” into the thing committees and colleagues actually remember: the sound only you make. You’re no longer just consistent; you’re irreplaceable.
The word itself always knew. Volatility comes from the Latin volare, “to fly.” Before it meant crashing markets or explosive tempers, it meant birds. Butterflies. Wings. Volatility contains within it the possibility for flight.
Chamber Music Corner—Dubois Trio Cantabile
Chamber Music Corner—Dubois Trio Cantabile
by Layne Anspach
This month’s focus will be on Théodore Dubois’ Trio Cantabile for violin, horn, and piano. Théodore Dubois (1837-1924) was a French composer and organist. He studied organ and piano at the Paris Conservatoire where he later taught harmony and composition (1871-1896), eventually became the school director (1896-1905). Highlighting his compositional ability, he was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1861. An active church organist, he performed at Sainte-Clotilde and the Church of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine, having succeeded both Franck and Saint-Saëns. Dubois is best known for his sacred works, but he also wrote many secular works such as this month’s offering. His output includes over 200 chamber works, ballets, operas, masses, and orchestral works.
Trio Cantabile is a short but very lovely piece. The primary instrumentation is violin, horn, and piano, but the horn part can be performed by a cello, and the score indicates piano or organ. In the score, the horn is marked as “Cor chromatique en Fa.” The work is simple in its form with two themes repeated twice each. The first theme is presented by the horn with chordal keyboard accompaniment. The violin later takes up the melody while the horn continues in a supportive role.
After the violin concludes the first melody, the horn takes up the second melody. The second melody dances between duple and triple subdivisions since the whole work is in 9|8. The subdivision shifts easily because the constant keyboard accompaniment is made almost exclusively of dotted half and dotted quarter notes. The violin takes over the second melody with the horn in a supportive role, like in the first half of the piece. The work ends with a short coda which slows into a peaceful ascending resolution.
The reference recording is from the album Horn Trios by Brahms, Kahn, Koechlin Dubois (Affetto). The hornist is Howard Wall.
Meet the People—Kyle Hayes
Kyle Hayes is a versatile performer and educator whose work bridges the traditions of classical French horn and Highland bagpipes. Currently, he is based in Mexico City where he teaches English as a foreign language.
He graduated from the University of Memphis where he studied with Dan Phillips before completing his graduate studies at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, Switzerland, studying under David Johnson. After returning to the United States, he was a freelance musician in Nashville, Tennessee, where he performed with several area orchestras, chamber ensembles, and musical theatre productions. Additionally, his horn playing can be heard on film, television, and video game soundtracks.
While in Nashville, Kyle taught privately in the metro Nashville area with students consistently placing in top chairs in regional and all-state honor bands and orchestras. He was also the horn specialist for Music Makes Us, an initiative of Metro Nashville Public Schools and the greater community, aiming to provide equitable access to high-quality music education for K-12 school students.
In 2019, he relocated to Mexico City after being hired as an English teacher but has maintained his musical career. Along with teaching English, Kyle has continued teaching horn online and plays bagpipes with Saint Patrick’s Battalion Bagpipe Band.
Kyle serves as the editor of The Horn Zone for the International Horn Society, items of interest by and for young horn players.
He is also in the process of developing The Virtual Horn Studio to provide free video resources for music educators and horn students without access to private lessons.
Student Column—The Art of Programming a Recital
by Inman Hebert
With the warm winds of spring, we find ourselves squarely in the midst of recital season, where undergraduate and graduate college students perform masterworks for horn. In the recent quest to program and prepare for my first collegiate recital, I found myself with a myriad of questions and perspectives thinking about this milestone event.
Logistically, reserving the performance hall, identifying a pianist, and, in my case, collaborating with a fellow student can be challenging in pinpointing the appropriate steps and effectively communicating with all involved. More importantly, I found myself pondering what to choose for the recital and why. What are the goals of this recital, and how do I design a program accordingly?
Initially, I felt internalized pressure to program “the standards” of horn playing. After all, a tenet of music performance education lies in mastering horn repertoire most frequently requested for auditions and competitions, from the Paris Conservatory graduation pieces to Strauss and Mozart. Programming these works seemed logical as certain solo repertoire appears on every list.
As I thought about how recitals tell a story through music, infinite pathways opened. Even the etymology from the Latin recitāre and the old French récital suggests a more narrative-based experience. Recitals portray a version of who we are as musicians and our artistic choices.
As students, we attend the performances of our fellow students. In archives, researchers can find numerous examples of recital programs from the past. On the Internet Archive, viewers can read through programs for institute recitals at the Curtis Institute of Music dating back to 1926. While some programs may certainly be more thematic than others, all recitals ultimately tell the story of the performing artist.
We all must answer what that tale will be for our next recital. While our institutions and mentors will guide us, these decisions are individualized. Our tale may be as simple as one of self-improvement or of deeper emotional meaning. By structuring a recital in the manner that speaks to us, we will be able to deliver a compelling performance that speaks musically to our audience.
Research to Resonance—Your Whole Life is a Practice
by Katy Carnaggio
Textures. Rhythms. Tiny emotional blueprints. Your brain has been collecting them and filing them under “music,” whether you asked it to or not. But you can help. Most mechanisms of transfer can be leveraged by noticing a moment, naming the quality it holds, and linking it to something you already know on the horn.
If you love music, you can't help it. You learn timing from the neighbor's car alarm, phrasing from your cat's mid-morning yowl, and articulation (if you're truly desperate) from the pop and splatter of breakfast sausages. Not everything translates directly (don't try to build your embouchure away from the horn, for example). But the instinct to listen and connect your favorite parts of your life to your music? That's what makes transfer so powerful.
Both practice and transfer build skill—one through focused repetition, and the other through lived experience. And the deepest musicianship relies on both. Here are eight ways this may already be happening for you:
(Adapted from: Ormrod, Jeanne Ellis. Human Learning. Eighth edition. Pearson, 2020.)
Next time something catches your ear (or your eye, or your gut), name what it's doing. That's where Part IV picks up.
Pedagogy Column—“Fast is Fine…
Pedagogy Column—“Fast is Fine…
compiled and edited by Mike Harcrow
…but accuracy is everything.” I have used this famous Wyatt Earp quote for decades with my students as a reminder to build, without haste or impatience, the physical coordination accuracy requires. To use lips, tongue, and fingers perfectly in tandem, supported by excellent airflow and well-practiced audiation skills, comes at different rates for different players—but I doubt even our horn-world superstars would say that flawless accuracy comes quickly.
I grew up with the Philip Farkas warm-ups, including the love-it-or-hate-it page 69 from The Art of French Horn Playing, an exercise designed to improve accuracy. Clyde Miller, my [very patient] teacher from 7th-12th grades, a Farkas contemporary, often exhorted me to “hear” with my lips. I confess that this instruction made no sense to me in my initial years of study, but I understand it now as audiation + muscle memory (and, at some level, this is how string players relate to their physical contact with a fingerboard).
What follows are some approaches to the issue of accuracy, some short and some longer, some thought-provoking and some to the point, but all helpful. These have been contributed by various players and professors who serve the International Horn Society in some administrative or content-producing role. The ideas, while by no means an exhaustive list, represent decades of information passed from teacher to student as well as personal experiences honed by inquiry, application, and success.
With a well-prepared tongue, you will never miss a note.
Austris Apenis, Horn and More Europe Desk Editor
In accuracy of playing, I am especially helped by focusing on air usage and core support, as well as being aware of tongue position or vowel shape. Accuracy is very much about timing and good coordination of the different aspects of playing technique. Focusing on air use keeps my attention both in the present moment and on the most essential element of playing technique at the same time.
Tommi Hyytinen, International Horn Society Advisory Council
Try these two very helpful resources on accuracy:
- Read Nicholas Smith's book Don't Miss
- Download and use the app Farkas 2.0. Available on the App Store.
James Boldin, Editor, The Horn Call
Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast—a great sentiment to hold for both horn and life.
Rusty Holmes, “Mental Fitness” column, The Horn Call
Over the years, I've become convinced that a fair percentage of accuracy issues relate to synchronization of the fingers as we change notes. If you could see your fingers in slow motion as they move, for example, from 0 to T23, I suspect you might see them roll into place, with the third finger going down first and the thumb going down last.I find that passages in written E major are particularly important to master in this regard, and I often return to Pares Scales no. 99 (an E major exercise) to recheck the synchronization of my fingers.Be sure that your valve levers are adjusted so that they are in an ideal location to reach them. This may involve adjusting heights, adding lever extenders (like small coins), etc.I offer this final tip: My former colleague, tubist Sam Pilafian, was always reminding people to use fast fingers in slow passages. Fingers need to move into place quickly and with total synchronization.
John Ericson, “Equipment Notes” column, The Horn Call (see also Horn Matters)
Record yourself: One thing often forgotten in our efforts to increase accuracy is that we must be relaxed and confident. Our modern smartphone is our secret weapon in this matter. Record yourself early and often in your practice sessions. Not only will you discover issues about which you were unaware, but hearing yourself perform something will serve to build your confidence and remove the physical tension that causes “chips” and missed notes. Your performance will become exactly what you expect it to be, not just something that you hope it will be. Tuning and accuracy: A friend of mine once said a missed note is a note that was going to be out of tune. Tune your horn carefully, play daily with tuning drones, and be sure you can play in the center of each and every note. Any note that has to be bent to be played in tune is a note that you are likely to miss.
Brad Tatum, “Cor Values” column, The Horn Call
When working on accuracy, I recommend singing through the passage you are practicing to be sure you are hearing pitches correctly. Then, make sure your instrument is in tune. Finally, simply “sing” through the horn.
Susan McCollough, Executive Director, International Horn Society
