The annual general meeting of the IHS starts the day. Today, the message about the fire exits is delivered in Dr. Seuss-eze by one of the Rochester horn players. Or, was that yesterday? ;-)
Nothing too terribly surprising comes out of the meeting; various reports and announcements regarding scholarship/competition winners, among others. A young gentleman from Hungary manages to win both the high and low horn competition. Johnny Pherigo formally announces the IHS web site should be up in September. During the general suggestion period, several good ones are made, and Froydis is writing them all down for next year's conference in Banff, which she is co-hosting. The two comments I remember were "more competitions for the students [!]" and "some sort of competition for the over 25 crowd." The latter is an interesting idea, though I'm not sure how you'd implement it. There's more, but unfortunately I have forgotten it. There should be more in the upcoming issue of the Horn Call.
After the meeting, it's time for door prizes. I manage to score an L.A. Horn Club record that I am very much looking forward to listening to. When I am walking up to the stage to get my prize, Paul Mansur says "yeah, the internet guy."
Good seats have become increasingly hard to find as the conference has progressed; there are about 2 rows which have substantially more leg room than the rest, so I skip the Green Mountain Horn Club concert in the promenade to get a good seat for the morning recital, featuring the works and commentary of Verne Reynolds. First is a work written for a husband-and-wife percussion/horn team, "Horn Vibes." It is today performed by a different husband/wife team, Lynn Hunzinger Beck (horn) and John Beck, Jr. (vibraphone). Next up are "Six Duos for Horn and Trombone", performed by Alex Shuhan (horn) and Mark Kellogg (t-bone). As the Austin Symphonic Band has performed with Alex on several occasions, it's a pleasure to see and hear him again. Nancy Cochran-Block follows with "Elegy", a very dark, brooding work. The final number of the recital is a world premiere, "Divertimento for Wind Quintet and Percussion." Verne Reynolds says that comic opera provided much of the inspiration for the work. It sounds pretty serious to me, given that statement.
After lunch and some packing (sniff! and, how did this luggage get so heavy all of a sudden?), it's time for my last concert, given by the Tokyo Ultra Hornists. This is a group of professionals from the Tokyo area who have performed at two previous IHS conferences. Unfortunately, the program is substantially reworked from what's listed in the program .. or perhaps, fortunately, because they give a winning effort on the replacement works. I can remember Bozza's "En Foret" , a Hoagy Carmichael arrangement, some of Lowell Shaw's "Tripperies" (and, having met Lowell Shaw, what a super gentleman he is), and then conclude with a Japanese folk song. It's all extremely well-done; the Charmichael work sounds especially good, and their low hornist has that rare combination of tone *and* projection we all wish we had. Oh, and they did the fire announcement in Japanese, too.
So, with heavy heart, I head to the airport, sharing a cab with someone else who's on the exact same flight. Not to fear, however, because Joeth Barlas has provided a summary of the rest of the day, which follows shortly.
All in all, this was an incredible experience. It is such a pleasure to be surrounded by several hundred people who know what horn playing is all about. The conference itself was well-conceived and organized, and I salute Peter Kurau, his students (who worked very, very hard), and the IHS itself for the event. If I can, I'll be in Banff, Alberta next year (Jun 2-8). Hope to see (more of) you there!
The 3 pm session was Jim Thatcher again, playing recorded clips from some movies he's played; he arranged them by composer, and they were:
As far as the content of the final concert, it began with the entire audience reciting the fire regs along with the unsuspecting stage manager -- a tough thing for Howard Paikin to engineer, since the guy said he planned to do it over the PA and had to be requested to do it in person. Francis Orval did a stellar performance of Messaien's "Appel interstallaire" from "Des Canyons aux Etoiles."
Kirsten Thelander did a Sigurd Berge Horn Call (Horn Lokk) from the rear of the hall (upper balcony) and Hans Pizka did the long Siegfried call.
Then a huge group of natural horns (about 12 or 13) did Le Rendezvous de Chasse of Rossini, and L. Bontrager, N. Cochran Block and V. Thompson ("the three graces") did a B. Krol trio, the Habersack Serenade.
Next H. Pizka, G. Seifer, S. Ohno, and K. Moriyama did a set of three German quartets in memory of hornists who died this year, included Hans's father. Hans asked us all to stand briefly in memory of them.
An intriped octet did the Thunderlip arrangement of the opening movement from Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, showing just how tough it is... and a Japanese ensemble, with narrative by accompanist Tomoko Kanamaru, did a "Music Drama" based on famous horn themes. (She dressed as a sleek black cat, and brought on John Wates dressed as a growling white puppy!). [a note about Ms. Kanamaru - she provided much of the piano accompaniament during the week. Her playing was skillful and full of feeling throughout, and she deserves a "brava" or two for her great contribution during the week - rb]
To bring down the house, Bill VerMuelen did a bridal procession to the Mendelsohn (attendants with flowers tucked behind their ears, VerMeulen in a bridal veil with a nosegay tucked in his valve section, N. Cochran Block in tux to "give him away"), then played an amazing Clarke "Bride of the Waves" ending in triple high C!!! (I don't have the name of the audience member who caught the bouquet afterwards!) And to bring down the house still further, K. Betts and H. Pizka engaged in a horn-throwing, bashing, damaging duo that involved repeated, unwanted Siegfried calls (Pizka), stipping to Superman T-shirt (Betts). The piece, called the Schultage, involved about 10 of our finest, including Michael Thompson as the star soloist, and Jimi Hayes as his beer-guzzing assistant. Much madness.
And that was the first half of the program. The horn choirs then played for another hour, and the whole thing ended a bit after 11. Playing continued in the dorms til who knows when? Breakfast Sat. a.m. and we all dragged off bleary-eyed and tear-eyed to our vehicles where, hopefully, a more rested driver sat in reserve! (But horn workshops aren't about sleeping, are they?)
I meant to add, in the final concert, the Schultage piece (by Milton Phibbs, known as the composer of other humorous horn works such as The Tombeau du Corniste performed at Tallahassee) opened with a rendition of Also Sprach Zarathustra (aka 2001 theme), with Peter Kurau apparently acting as a crazed chimp by hammering out the percussion part on two garbage cans behind the horn section! It was to die laughing for.
Respectfully (and finally) Submitted,
Ron Boerger