Looking ahead, keep an eye out over the next few months for posts on upcoming recitals, the 45th International Horn Symposium, and the release of my solo CD, Koetsier: Music for Horn.

• Walter Mönnig,
  single b-flat/single b-flat with A slide: operas, Haydn concertos,
  Weber Concertino, Danzi Concerto, Lortzing Concert Piece
• Engelbert Schmid, single b-flat with A and B slides: solo
  concertos, performances with historic organs
• Engelbert Schmid, double horn with stopping valve:
  orchestral concerts
• Walter Mönnig, descant
  horn in B-flat/F-alto with separate A/E-alto tuning slide: Baroque
  works by Quantz, Zelenka, Heinichen, Telemann, Fasch
• Friedbert Syhre, piccolo horn in F-alto/B-flat alto: horn
  and organ recitals
• Other horns by H. F. Knopf
  and Yamaha: chamber music
• Mouthpieces by
  Wunderlich, Christoph Werner Schmidt, Friedbert Syhre: matched to
  specific instruments

My first thought after
reading and digesting all of this information was “wow, that’s a
lot of horns!” However, when you think about it, matching horns to
repertoire is no different than what trumpet players do (although I
will admit this is an extreme example). The bottom line, though, is
that Damm has found what works for him, and isn’t constrained by
the idea that you have to do everything on one horn and/or
mouthpiece. There’s plenty more great information on this site, and
it’s well worth spending some time on it. Moving on to Hugh
Seenan’s site, it seems to be set up with more of a promotional
(rather than informational) goal in mind. It’s clean, and very
well-designed, with some great audio
clips of Mr. Seenan in action. Another must-read page on
this site is his biography, which contains some
wonderful photographs of the horn sections from the Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish National Orchestra, and London
Symphony, as well as several recording sessions. With so much
information available on the web, it’s often tough to separate
useful sites from not-so-useful ones. Finding new (at least to me)
and interesting sites like the ones above is always fun and
refreshing. Have you found any new and/or interesting horn or
brass-related sites lately? Feel free to comment
below.

You’ve been active in music education as well, working as a teaching artist for The Philadelphia Orchestra’s School Partnership Program. Can you talk a little bit about this program and your experiences with it?

First of all, I believe every musician should be required to read Eric Booth’s fantastic book The Music Teaching Artist’s Bible. Seriously, go read it. Now.

These days, it’s really not enough to just play great. We are all required to be ambassadors for our art. I do not know a single musician who doesn’t also teach and/or do some sort of outreach. I was lucky enough to teach for the Philadelphia Orchestra’s School Partnership Program on a weekly basis in various public elementary schools in Philadelphia. Over the four years that I worked in this program, I worked in three different schools with students in grades 2 through 5 doing engaging music activities every week. I partnered with the classroom teachers for this, which means that I was in their everyday classroom, not their music classroom. Students would come to Philadelphia Orchestra concerts, as well as other concerts in the Philadelphia area. We did all sorts of things– cross curricular activities tying orchestral music into something they were learning in their literacy classes, for example. Or learning the theme to Beethoven’s 3^rd Symphony on the recorder. Students did a lot of group work with compositional techniques. The sky was really the limit, and I really got to be creative with my lesson planning.

This program is based on the idea that we must engage our audiences before we inform them. Get people of all ages involved in the process and they’ll be more invested in the result. Some of the work that I am most proud of as a musician came from working with these teachers and kids, bringing them into the world of orchestral music

I could go on about this program and the importance of audience engagement for quite awhile, but rather than me jabbering, why don’t you all just go buy the book??

Who have your major musical influences been, horn playing or otherwise?

I’ve been truly blessed to have some great teachers on the horn. Cindy Carr, Doug Hill, and Adam Unsworth are my formal teachers and I’ve taken a great deal from studying with each of them. I’ve also taken a lot of inspiration from Denise Tryon and Froydis Wekre. I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting Sarah Willis but she’s also someone I really admire.

Do you do anything physical (besides practice!) to keep your horn playing in shape?

I practice yoga and run. I enjoy the yoga because it clears my head and helps to stretch my body after long hours of playing. Studies repeatedly show that sitting is one of the hardest things for our bodies, and in an orchestra, you do a lot of it! Yoga can also really help with core strength, which just helps everything. It helps with sitting for long hours, it helps with holding the horn, it helps with awareness of your body. I would really encourage brass players to try it, and make sure you try lots of different teachers and styles of yoga if you aren’t sure about it at first.

I also took up running about two years ago. I’m not fast by any means, but I have found that cardiovascular activity REALLY helps my playing. I find that I breath more efficiently on my horn when I’ve been running regularly, even if I’m not going huge distances. I completed my first half marathon last year and run the occasional road race. I often put symphonic repertoire on my playlist while I run, so it has the added bonus of being a time to listen to some of what’s coming up. (This has mixed results, sometimes the slow movements just aren’t great to run to!)

 Any other projects you want to talk about?

In 2011, I started a chamber music festival in British Columbia, where my husband Jeff has some roots. I actually have ceded control of the festival to a colleague of mine since moving to Denmark, but I still want to talk a little about it because it ties in with a lot of what we’re talking about here.

When I started out freelancing, I didn’t feel like I got to play chamber music on a really high level. And I found, talking to my friends, that they felt very much the same. My husband’s family has a condo in Invermere, British Columbia and Jeff and I had remarked for a long time that it would be a great place for a summer music festival. So sometime in the winter of 2011, I decided to start a festival. I had no idea what I was doing because I’d never done anything like that before. But I just picked up the phone and started making some calls to the local arts organizations and to my friends who I thought might want to come play music and hang out on the lakeshore when we weren’t rehearsing.

I think, in hindsight, what happened was that I had become so wrapped up in auditions and working as a freelancer that I didn’t have much of my own direction. And I realized that if I wanted to play chamber music in the summer, then I couldn’t just sit around and wait for the phone to ring. No one else was going to start that festival, and I knew it was a great idea and there was an audience for it. And I was right. And it is a TON of work, but it was also fantastic, and rewarding, and it was MINE. I could program what I wanted, hire who I wanted, it was GREAT. Unfortunately, moving to Europe really made running the festival unrealistic, but I’ve been invited to play in a chamber ensemble here in Denmark that I’m very excited about that is starting up this summer. And I already feel like I’m able to take a lot of the things I learned from my own festival and apply them here.

Anything else you’d like to share?

Sure, as long as you’re giving me a soapbox to stand on, I’ll take it.

Winning a job in an orchestra is not easy. Preparing for auditions is a skill set all on its own. And you have to be intense about the process, and relentless for it to pay off.

Whether it’s because of the process or because of schooling, many musicians believe that winning an orchestra job is the be-all and end-all. They believe it is going to be the key to their happiness, that the world will just be a better place once they win that job. To be perfectly clear: I love my job. I have great colleagues. I love playing orchestral repertoire. Going to work is not a chore for me. But being in an orchestra also means that you have to give up a lot of control. You don’t get to choose the repertoire. You don’t get to choose the hours. It’s a grind and it’s a JOB sometimes. You are a cog in the wheel of an organization that has the potential to be MAGICAL. Playing Mahler or Mozart or Beethoven– it’s a gift. But that’s not always what an orchestra job is, week in and week out. I know a lot of musicians who are severely disappointed that winning a job didn’t suddenly solve all of their problems.

What I’ve noticed about both freelance musicians and those with full time orchestra jobs is that the ones that are the happiest are the ones who have many projects. For example, teaching, chamber music, playing in a band, non-musical hobbies, sports, WHATEVER. Find out what’s important to you musically, and find other people who also want to do that. Sometimes it isn’t something that you do for financial gain. (And that can be the great thing about an orchestra job– it’ll give you the security to pursue other projects outside of the orchestra.) My point, though, is that sometimes if things aren’t great at work, or you have a bad day teaching, or one project just isn’t coming together, you can still look to the other stuff for inspiration. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that an orchestra job will solve your problems. It won’t. But it’s a fantastic way to make a living.

Thanks so much for the opportunity, James! Hope I wasn’t too long-winded!

I recently reconnected over Facebook with Lauren Robinson, a friend and colleague from graduate school. I feel very lucky to have gone to school with some incredibly talented and hardworking musicians, who inspired me then and continue to inspire me today. Lauren currently lives in Denmark, where she plays Fourth Horn with the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra. Prior to moving overseas, she was an active freelancer in Philadelphia, performing as a regular musician in the Opera Company of Philadelphia, The Reading Symphony Orchestra, Symphony in C and the Ocean City Pops. She was also active as a teaching artist, working primarily for the Philadelphia Orchestra’s School Partnership Program.

You recently won an audition for the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra in Denmark. Could you talk briefly about your background, and how you arrived in your current position?

Sure! I grew up in central PA, came through a good music program in high school, and ultimately decided to major in music at the University of Delaware, where I studied with Cindy Carr. After that, I got my Master’s Degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where I studied with Douglas Hill. After that, I decided to head back east and got a Professional Studies Certificate at Temple University, where I studied with Adam Unsworth (who now teaches at University of Michigan.) After all that, I won a one year position in the Calgary Philharmonic where I met my husband Jeff, who plays the bass. And after a few years of long distance relationship, we got married. Jeff took a sabbatical from his job in Calgary for the 2011-12 orchestra season and we both won positions here in the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra in May 2012.

What was the audition process for this orchestra? How did it compare to the audition system in the United States?

Auditions here are essentially the same as in the United States. There’s a screen, you receive the list ahead of time (although often you don’t receive the excerpt list until 2 weeks beforehand, which is quite different from American orchestras.) There’s a much greater emphasis placed on solo playing here, and there is almost always an accompanist provided at auditions. My first round was the Hermann Neuling Bagatelle for horn and piano. This is a very common piece on low horn auditions in Europe, but we almost never play it in the States. There were no excerpts at all on my first round. The second round was the entire first movement of Mozart 3 (including the cadenza) and one or two excerpts. Then the last round was entirely excerpts.

Actually, if I remember correctly, for the last round they just said “Play everything on the list that you haven’t already played for us, in any order you want.” I remember thinking at the time that I could really get into my own head and start arranging excerpts in the most convenient way, strategizing about which should be first, last, etc. (There were at least 10 excerpts left to play at that point.) But then I had this realization that the best thing to do was just go in order, start to finish. Realistically, if I didn’t know how to play the excerpts, I wasn’t going to trick anyone by playing them in a different order.

Generally, I think the committees are larger here. There were at least ten people on my committee for 4^th horn. And principal positions are usually no less than 15 people. One major difference is that our music director has no say in the hiring of musicians here, so he is not even allowed to sit on committees. Of course these things can vary from orchestra to orchestra. I can only speak from my own experiences.

Are there any other differences you’ve noticed performing in an orchestra outside the United States?

Honestly, not really. Orchestras are all basically the same wherever you go. There are small stylistic things that I sometimes think are slightly more “European” but they’re hard to exactly put a finger on. I might have a better answer to this after some more time passes.

Since this is a horn blog, I’ll nerd out for a second here about equipment. There are 8 full time orchestras in Denmark, including the opera orchestra. To the best of my knowledge, there isn’t a single section with a preference toward equipment. In my section, we are a Cornford, Paxman, Lewis, and Hill. We all just play what works best for us, which I think is a valuable piece of advice for horn students: get the equipment that makes you the most comfortable, that works the best, and makes you sound the way you want.

 What about major differences between life in Denmark vs. life in the United States?

Well, I’m learning to speak Danish!! That’s sort of fun. We are a very international orchestra, with about half of the orchestra coming from outside of Denmark. And Denmark is a pretty small country, so we rehearse in Danish when we have a Danish conductor. But frankly, that’s probably fewer than 10 weeks a year. So at work, English is mostly the language of rehearsals. Orchestra meetings and correspondence are all in Danish, though. So it’s important to learn it just to keep up with what’s going on and feel like you are a full member of the ensemble.

I just read your interview with Daren Robbins (Part 1 and Part 2) and one thing he said about Thailand really resonated with me as an expat. While Denmark is certainly much more like America than Thailand is, living abroad comes with a lot of challenges. Work permits and immigration, being far from home in a new country… sometimes the smallest thing can turn into a big deal because of small misunderstandings. But if you’re the type of person who likes a challenge and is adventurous, there are a lot of great opportunities in orchestras outside of America.

You also have extensive experience as a freelancer in the Philadelphia area. Do you have any advice for players looking to get into freelance work?

I feel like a lot of people come out of music school expecting that they are going to win a big job in a big orchestra. And the harsh reality is that only a tiny fraction of those people will even come CLOSE to winning a full time orchestra job. So the rest of you are going to have to find a way to make a living making music. A lot of people treat freelancing like a crappy consolation prize, but I really enjoyed freelancing in many ways and miss certain aspects of it.

When you’re a freelancer, you certainly have less stability– you don’t get your schedule ahead of time and sometimes the money can get a little dicey. But you also don’t have to sit next to the same people all the time. You have more control over your schedule. There’s a much wider variety of things you find yourself doing and projects that you find yourself involved with as a freelancer. It can be a lot of driving depending on where you are, and it can be a really tough schedule with few breaks or days off. But keeping a good attitude about it can make all the difference. A few practical pieces of advice:

When you first start out, take EVERYTHING that comes your way. Even if it seems inconsequential, like a church gig that pays $20. You don’t know who you are going to meet at those gigs, and you have to start making connections somewhere. Eventually, as you (hopefully) climb the freelancing ladder, you won’t feel like you have to take everything and you can be more discerning. Every gig is an opportunity to make a good impression, both with your playing and your professionalism.

And speaking of professionalism… My basic rule for those just starting out (and those who’ve been in it for awhile, too!) is “Don’t be annoying.” Here are a few things that are annoying and should be avoided:

1. Showing up late. Nothing says “this job isn’t important to me” like not showing up on time. Yes, things happen that you absolutely couldn’t anticipate. I’m not talking about those events. If you’re leaving Philly at 4:30 on a Friday, it’s a pretty safe bet that there’s traffic. Leave MORE than enough time to get where you are going.
2. Playing with your phone during rests and tacets. I don’t care if regular members of the group are on their phone. If you are a sub, keep it offstage. Your Facebook can wait until break.
3. Practicing your concertos and excerpts for your next audition while everyone else is warming up. Yes, you sound very nice on Pavane and Ein Heldenleben, but we’re playing a pops concert and you’re being annoying. Practice at home. Use the stage time before rehearsal to double check the parts you are actually playing and make sure you sound good on the things you’ll actually be judged on.
4. Not knowing your part. Come on, people, in the age of iTunes and Spotify, you’re telling me you really haven’t heard it? There is no excuse for this. Period.
5. Acting like you’re too good for the gig. Be nice, be friendly, be a good sport. I don’t need you to be a cheerleader, but don’t roll your eyes or complain.

Remember, once you’ve blown the chance to show someone that you are prepared and professional, you don’t get that opportunity back.

Know that you can be replaced. No one is obligated to call you, and there is always someone behind you who would be HAPPY for the work.

Check back soon for Part 2!

Both are very well made, and should stand up to repeated and regular use, provided that they are cared for properly. They both will record to flash memory cards (SD or SDHC) at a maximum of 24-bit/96kHz, with a range of settings including .wav and .mp3 format. To my ears, I can’t distinguish a difference in the recordings made on one versus the other (using the same settings). Both have AC adapters included, which I would recommend for most recording jobs unless you absolutely can’t access a power outlet. If you can’t use the provided AC adapters, both recorders will operate on 2 AA batteries. I haven’t tested this personally, but the Zoom claims to have a max battery life of 11 hours, while the Edirol claims 7.5 hours. File transfer is very simple, with both recorders supporting USB connections. Getting a raw sound file from the device on to your computer for editing is as easy as opening a folder and dragging the file over to your desktop. The menu systems are pretty similar, to the point that I was able to figure out how to operate the Zoom with only a cursory look at the manual.

Looking at the two, the Edirol is smaller and thinner, giving it a bit of an edge if portability is an important factor for you. Here they are side by side.

And now in profile.

To give you a sense of the scale, the Edirol is slightly bigger than an iPod or standard-size smartphone. The Edirol could easily fit in your pocket, but the Zoom would be pushing it. In addition, the Edirol comes with a wireless remote, a very useful tool if you are recording by yourself. One noticeable deficiency in the Edirol is that it does not come with a tripod adapter – although it does come with with a small plastic stand. You have to purchase a separate case or use a music stand if you want to position the recorder at a specific height. (After a bit of research, it would seem that the R-09HR is no longer manufactured, and has been replaced by the R-05).

The Zoom has some unique features as well. The onboard microphones can be adjusted to 90 or 120 degrees, and the device also has XLR jacks with phantom power so that other microphones can be used separately or in combination with the onboard mics (I haven’t experimented with using the XLR inputs). In addition, the Zoom supports three different recording modes: stereo, four channel, and multi-track. I’ve only used the stereo setting, although it might be fun to play around with the multi-track function sometime. For me – and this may seem silly – the biggest advantage to the Zoom is that it will fit directly onto a tripod, shown here.

Having the tripod makes it much easier to position the Zoom for concerts, recitals and other types of recording. The Zoom also includes a built-in tuner and metronome, although I haven’t used those particular features very much.

Overall, these are both great tools, and I would recommend either of them to students and teachers for recording practice sessions and performances. They are very affordable when compared to other types of equipment, and either one would be a great introduction to  digital recording.

• Night Poems (Recorded 1990) Horn and piano; Important solo works as well as several miniatures for horn and piano.
• Mozart Horn Concerti (Recorded 1993) Mr. Ruske with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Sir Charles Mackerras. All four concertos, as well as the Concert Rondo, K. 371 and Fragment, K. 494a. Also includes a rare recording of Ill Wind by Flanders and Swan (based on the last movement of K. 495).
• Virtuoso Music for Horn and Piano (Recorded 2000) Horn and piano; transcriptions and original works. Particularly noteworthy is the recording of Arban’s Fantasie and Variations on the Carnival of Venice.
• The Classic Horn (Recorded 2002) Horn and piano; transcriptions of Baroque, Classical, and Romantic era works.
• The Romantic Horn Concerti (Recorded 2005) Mr. Ruske with the IRIS Chamber Orchestra and Michael Stern. Recordings of major concertos for horn and orchestra by Richard Strauss, Franz Strauss, and Reinhold Glière.
• Just Me and My Horn (Recorded 2006) Unaccompanied repertoire, including several transcriptions by Mr. Ruske.
• Music by Three (Recorded 2010) Works for violin, horn, and piano by Brahms, Dubois, and Holbrooke.

Just looking at the above information, you can see that this collection encompasses a wide variety of repertoire over a twenty year period in Mr. Ruske’s prolific career. Rather than go into detail about each album, I’ll offer a few summary comments about what you’ll hear on these discs. First, his playing is remarkably consistent, from the earliest recording to the most recent. His sound is direct, but also capable of warmth and reserve where the music requires it. The technique is impeccable, but what stands out the most to me about these recordings is the phrasing, and confidence in the musical message being conveyed. One may not always agree with the musical choices a particular player makes – this can be said about anyone – but in the case of Eric Ruske it is impossible to ignore the conviction behind them. Mr. Ruske’s playing grabs the listener and holds his attention, sometimes through exaggeration, but often through subtlety. I had the opportunity in the summer of 2001 to participate in a week long series of master classes with Mr. Ruske at the Las Vegas Music Festival. This intense period consisted of at least two two-hour long master classes each day, covering solo repertoire, etudes, chamber music, and orchestral excerpts. Though we sometimes found the schedule a bit grueling, all of the participants came away with a wealth of experiences. For the entire week, Mr. Ruske approached his teaching in the same way he approaches his playing; with boundless energy and enthusiasm!

There are dozens of great solo horn recordings out there, but relatively few boxed sets like this one. If you’re looking to expand your recording library, The Horn of Eric Ruske is highly recommended.

• Developing lip trills and the high range takes time: This is something I didn’t realize as a young student, but it really does take years of regular practice to build both your trills and the upper and lower limits of your range. I didn’t have a particularly strong high range as a college student, but over the course of the past 10 years or so I’ve experienced incremental (if sometimes slow) development.
• This exercise can seem extreme at first, but over time the body becomes accustomed to it. When I first attempted this exercise in 2002 I thought, “I’ll never be able to play that.” However, simply attempting to play in an extreme range for a few minutes a day will yield results if given enough time. There’s still plenty of room for improvement, of course, and if things are feeling good, I will repeat a couple of the high notes in search of better tone and/or intonation. I do that on this video for the high E and F.
• If executed properly, this exercise should feel easy. When everything is working correctly, playing up there doesn’t require lots of effort. Incorporating lip trills into high range practice helps to ensure that only the minimum amount of tension is being used. If you’re too tight, the exercise starts to feel like work.

In sum, there aren’t really any shortcuts to either of these techniques, and the best way to work on them is slowly, gradually, and with lots of patience!  Do you have any favorite range or lip trill exercises?  Feel free to comment below.

As for the first edits, I’m quite pleased so far. To put these edits together in the first place required that I go through approximately 37GB of sound files and choose the desired takes for each piece. We had notes from the sessions, but I still needed to listen to everything to be sure that the takes were correct. This took about ten hours of really intense listening, broken up over several days of course. The easiest method I found was to load all of the material into an iTunes playlist. This made it easy to compare several takes back to back. Even so, I could only work for about two hours before my ears started to play tricks on me. Sometimes I’d find myself wondering “did I nail that lick, or not?” If I wasn’t sure I would take a break and come back later after my ears (and brain) had rested. I don’t have expensive monitors, so I listened using a pair of Sennheiser HD 518 headphones (shown above, with some increasingly more tattered scores). Great headphones can cost several hundred to even thousands of dollars, but for the money I think the HD 518s are some of the best around.  Are they as good as some of the more expensive models – probably not – but they’re pretty close! After compiling a detailed list of takes, measure numbers, and other information, I sent it off to the engineer for the editing work. I’ve been listening closely to these edits, both for overall impressions as well as for places where another take needs to be substituted for musical or technical reasons. Thinking back over the process so far, it would probably have been much more convenient to build in a few extra days after the session to do the editing on-site. This wasn’t really a possibility with this project because of when my sessions were scheduled – the week before Christmas – but it would have made the back and forth conversations about editing decisions much faster. Right now I have to wait for the engineer to upload an edit to Dropbox, and then he has to wait for me to download, listen, and write coherent comments about it. All of this is happening while both of us are juggling other professional commitments. The process works, but is a little cumbersome.

The next step is to continue to listen critically and try to get the best possible takes for every single measure of each piece. This may require a few more rounds of editing, but in the end it will be worth it. I’m also beginning to think about mastering, and the kind of sound I want for the CD. In general I prefer a more direct (vs. distant) horn sound, which should work well for the material on this recording.  To be continued…

Jean-François Michel:  Suite for Trumpet, Horn and Trombone, Movement 1, Ouverture

Mel Mobley, Coloring with Water, *Premiere

Anthony Plog, Trio for Brass, horn cadenza at end of Movement 2, and Movement 3

Astor Piazzolla/arr. Anna Suechting, Libertango