Popular French Horn News

Looking for music for five or more horns?

The Guide to Horn Ensemble Repertoire by Rebecca Boehm Shaffer can help you. A new easy-to-use reference for horn ensemble music, this book highlights 17 different performance criteria plus objective annotations on general style, extended techniques, and other performance issues.

For more information, sample entries, and to order, visit www.TheHornGuide.com.

David Thompson has reported to the horn list that Jerome Ashby, Associate Principal horn of the New York Philharmonic, has died following a long battle with cancer.

Following on the cheer of the holiday season, I am very sorry to be the
bearer of very sad news. However, I have received word that Jerome Ashby,
associate principal horn of the New York Philharmonic, passed away this
morning after a long battle with cancer. He leaves behind five daughters,
the youngest still in elementary school.

I had the honor of working with Jerome when we coincided on the faculty of
the Aspen Music Festival a few years back, but I am sure that many others
who knew him for longer will share their thoughts on their experiences with
Jerome. But I did want to let you all know that we have today lost a very
fine horn player, and a wonderful person - one of the class acts in our
business.

Mr. Ashby's playing can be heard on several cds, as well as the American Horn Quartet's Take 9 recording.

Music From the Inside Out is a new documentary film providing an insider's perspective on life in the Philadelphia Orchestra. A featured film at this year's Philadelphia Film Festival, it is being shown today (April 20, 2005) to a sold-out Prinz Music Theater and opens Friday at the Ritz Five.

While many orchestras have had similar documentaries made about them, this one shows an extraordinary eye for frame composition and color, plus an all-around meticulousness - right down to the graphics - that puts it above others.

A highlight of the film is the story of Adam Unsworth:

[...] who aspired to be that rarest of musical birds, a jazz French hornist, only to find that the classical repertoire offered him a living. He is now one of the orchestra's sturdiest players.

Link

An order of congratuations go out to John Zirbel for landing the job of principal horn in Cincinnati. He will begin full-time in Cincinnati for the 2006-2007 season.

[img_assist|fid=320|thumb=1|alt=John Zirbel|caption=John Zirbel, Principal Horn, Cincinnati]

Link

John Zirbel has been principal horn of the OSM [l'Orchestre symphonique de Montréal] since 1979. During that time he has been a soloist in numerous concerto performances with the Orchestra, including the 2001 premiere of Sérénade Héroïque, a horn concerto written for him by Quebec composer Jacques Hétu.

Link

Principal hornist of the Boston Symphony James Sommerville has a nice interview up today in anticipation of his performance of the Mozart 2nd Concerto on the natural horn.

But Sommerville is also a curious fellow with a taste for horn variety. Ever since he was a teenager, he has maintained an interest in the natural horn, the 18th- and 19th-century precursor to the modern horn.

With coiled tubing but no valves, the natural horn relies on its performer to play both the notes available "naturally" on the instrument - from the harmonic series - and "stopped" notes produced when the player closes - or stops - the bell with the right hand, thus altering pitches.

Link

Sommerville is a prolific soloist and has previously recorded the Mozart Horn Concertos, albeit on modern horn. His other recordings include:

Schumann's Adagio and Allegro
The Britten Serenade
Wind Quintets of Mozart and Beethoven
Britten: The Canticles
The Glory of Gabrieli
Music for Voice & Harp
Virtuoso Trumpet

UPDATE:

[Sommerville] gave an engaging lesson in the period instrument's tricky technique and then served as enchanting virtuoso.

Link

Hornist Martin Smith of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has passed away on September 24, 2005.

Mr. Smith, co-principal horn with the Pittsburgh Symphony, died unexpectedly Saturday of arterial sclerotic cardiovascular disease. He was 58.

He was one of the top three or four players of New York-style horn, known for its big sound and bombastic manner, according to longtime friend John Cerminaro, principal horn for the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.

"Something will have ended with this, because I don't know many players around today who can play this way. It was like the way Reggie Jackson would swing full-out for a home run or the way Rocky Marciano would throw a punch," he said.

Mr. Smith played with the symphony Friday night.

Link

Scott Pappal writes:

[...] before the start of the program, the president of the PSO executive board came onstage to announce the death of Co-Principal hornist Martin Smith. Apparently, his death occured/was discovered about an hour before the start of tonight's concert. I have no other details to offer, but we should pause from our collective busy musical schedules to perhaps offer a prayer for Martin Smith's family and the other horn-players of the PSO. This was a fairly close horn section that just recently performed Schumann k-stuck.

Link

Smith was a religious man who expressed his faith with music:

Some [...] enhance the music of their religious institutions, such as [...] horn player Martin Smith with Kingdom First Ministries in Forest Hills.

Link

Here is a biographical document from 1991 from the PSO archives. Note that Mr. Smith was a member of the orchestra for 25 years:

Co-principal horn Martin Smith joined the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 1980. A native of New Orleans, he began serious study of the horn at age twelve and subsequently won a scholarship to the Juilliard School where he earned both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. After graduation he played third horn for one season with the Denver Symphony and then became principal horn of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, where he remained until joining the New York Philharmonic as associate principal horn in 1974. In 1979 Mr. Smith was named the New York Philharmonic's acting principal horn. That same year he performed as soloist in Richard Strauss's First Horn Concerto on the orchestra's subscription series. Mr. Smith has been on the faculties of Brooklyn College, the Manhattan School of Music and Montclair State College. He also has given master classes at the Juilliard School, the Aspen Music Festival and the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. Mr. Smith has recorded Haydn's First Horn Concerto for Turnabout Records.

Link

Apparently, the Canadian rock band Stars is making good use of the mellow monster in their latest album. Anybody heard these guys? Anybody know who's doing the horn work?

Their newer stuff features more songs with male-female vocal trade-offs, and the French horn player is a nice change of pace for a rock show.

Set Yourself On Fire: commentary on what it's like to play horn?

Link

A new website, High-C.com, has launched. The motto "Higher, louder, faster - dedicated to outrageous feats of musical athleticism" captures the spirit of the site. You can watch videos of classical musicians playing or singing the hardest and most virtuoso works for their instruments. There is a nice video of the Chicago Symphony (Dale Clevenger) doing the Konzertstück. You can also register and post your own videos (links taken from the common video sharing sites such as YouTube, iVideo, Bryghtcove etc.)

There's a new network/message board site for horn players to check out! Tony Licata (of the 4 hornsmen quartet) and Stewart De Haro (De Haro Horns) created a new message board where horn players can go and discuss anything about the horn. They are hoping it will branch into something big, which I'm sure it will blossom into a very popular spot! I'm so excited, and looking forward to discussing things with other horn players. Check it out!

The website is: http://com3.runboard.com/bbehindthehorn

Sandra Clark of RiverViewRecords.com writes to announce a new recording featuring the horn music of Alec Wilder.

Alec Wilder is often a favorite of horn players. 'Suite' - Music by Alec Wilder - offers six works for solo wind and strings - suites for Horn and Strings, Tenor Sax and Strings, Flute and Strings, and Clarinet and Strings (all in world premier recordings), as well as recordings of an additional suite for Tenor sax and strings and the beautiful suite for horn and piano. Please visit www.riverviewrecords.com to hear samples of these works, read liner notes, soloist bios, and of course - to buy should you desire. Paypal is used, so the site is secure.

The recording features Ms. Clark of the Toledo Symphony on Horn.

How is it that these pieces have never been recorded before? Were they unpublished? Lost? Obscure? I thought between Barrows and his students that Wilder's works were pretty well represented in the discography?

Thanks Sandra.
Link

UPDATE:

Sandra writes:

G. Schirmer owns distribution rights to all Wilder works.

[snip]

While Barrows may very well have recorded the Suite for Horn and Strings, it's not currently available in any format, legal or otherwise. The other 3 'world premiers' were all performed, but according to my sources (Wilder's biography, Judy Bell - longtime Wilder associate, Thomas Hampson - Wilder's attorney, CFG Publishing - Clark Galehouse's daughter - Clark recorded most of the Wilder stuff on his record label) most all of Wilder's output has never been recorded.