Ron Boerger - Contributing [non]artist for the 30^th Horn Summit

(Thanks to John Kowalchuk for the latter name!)

Like last year I will be summarizing the daily goings on at the annual I.H.S. workshop. Unlike last year I actually have a laptop that works, which should make life much easier.

Today of course is a travel day. There will be an opening concert late in the evening with some fine artists, but basically the first day is to allow everyone to get situated, familiarize themselves with the location, and so forth. There are a number of hornists surrounding me on the flight from D/FW today - how did they know to sit us all in one section? I guess they wanted to keep an eye on us all at the same time.

The last statement actually comes from Dr. Catherine Roche-Wallace, who is sitting next to me on the flight and whom I'm giving a lift to the Banff Centre. In an amazing total coincidence, not only did we end up on the same flight, but also on the same row. Pretty strange … in any case, she is a newly minted Ph.D. who is the horn instructor at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. I find out that USL has some pretty generous scholarship offers and hope that I will be able to use my UIL/TMEA contacts to help get her some names/addresses. We engage in pleasant conversation until I start typing this. Do you realize how hard it is to type about someone while they are watching you?

I've found out that my presentation (Version 2 of the Horn Player's Guide to the Internet) is on Wednesday afternoon opposite a massed choir rehearsal. It will be interesting to see how that affects attendance .. and of course, many who are in Banff will have seen last year's presentation.

I intend to put these notes on-line immediately this year, again the benefit of technology and a little planning. The URL will be:

http://www.io.com/~rboerger/IHS98conf

and I'll try to update at least daily what is happening. I'll also be posting this to the horn email list and the rec.music.makers.french-horn newsgroups, which is sort of obvious if you're reading this now.

That's all for now. More to come.

The flight to Calgary proceeded without a hitch (it did get a bit bumpy at the end) and we all head through customs without much of a problem. After a long wait, Dr. Roche-Wallace and I finally get the rental car and proceed west on Canada 1 towards Banff, narrowly avoiding several incidents in a parking lot where we stop to use an ATM.

Despite the off-and-on rain (and some snow in the higher elevations), the scenery is awe-inspiring and we both enjoy watching it go by. Eventually we get into Banff and find the Centre (yes, that is the correct spelling) and get checked in. I help Dr. Wallace with her luggage and head over to my room, which is halfway across the larger-than-expected complex.

I had opted for one of the 'standard' rooms so I could have my own bath. The 'standard' room, at least in my case, turns out to be a two-room suite overlooking the forest directly behind the Centre. Maybe I'll throw a party later in the week, although the check-in materials say there is to be no playing in rooms (no playing in rooms?? Grr ..). Anyway, I now have this huge room. From what I saw of the 'economy' rooms, they were at least the equal of the rooms at Rochester last year. Guess I'll know next time.

These rooms, in fact, are much more like hotel rooms than dorm rooms. This one has cable TV, telephone, a fully stocked bath, two huge closets, a table where I am typing this in (with a phone jack … will try that later!), and even the alarm clock I forgot last year. There's even room service. As I head to dinner, I see a moose browsing in the forest out the bedroom window. Pretty cool ..

Dinner is held at the Banff Centre Dining Room (what would you expect) and it's also first-class with very good food and attentive wait staff hovering all over the place. There's also a cash bar for those wanting to partake. So far it looks like the meal ticket was a good deal! There are I.H.S. folks and the cream of the horn world all over the place, as you'd expect. There are also tables reserved for other groups - this appears to be a popular location! Registration is apparently about 375 with some more walk-ups expected. That's a few more than I had expected. There is also a potential problem with one of the lecture rooms; it apparently has only 200 seats, which may cause problems. We'll see.

I already fear that the spread out nature of housing (people are scattered over many different buildings) combined with the Centre's policy on playing (no playing after midnight; only in designated areas, etc.) is going to change the flavour of this conference significantly from previous ones, or at least last year's. I hope not. In any case, this year I forgot my stand. Duh …

For me, it's time to take a shower and head over to the opening concert.

A call to the front desk confirms that the phone jacks are analog, not digital, so I will be able to send this from the room tonight. Great!

Before the concert starts I bump into Leslie Anne Lunsford, who is handling the horn list "Lunch" on Wednesday, and, of course, the issuing of the dots for badges for list members. Since the Centre has decided to put red and blue dots on the badges already, she has decided that two blue dots will do. We also talk about the digital camera she has - she needs to plug it into a laptop with a PCMCIA slot .. which of course I happen to have here. With luck there will be some pictures on the web site before the end of the week …

We file into the hall which seats about 900, and which appears about half full. There are some Banff residents who are paying CDN$12 to attend the opening concert, too. In order, the works presented are:

All works are well done. The Moos-Ruel is a nice work for alphorn with cowbells and similar instruments providing some added flavour to the work. The "Festival March" was written in commemoration of the Summit by Mr. Rektorys, a hornist who could not attend. It is a pleasing, lyrical work suitable for advanced high school or college choir, with no extreme high parts. There is a lot of meat in all six of the parts and a strong bass and middle horn contingent is called for. During the Morceau, played competently by Hoyt (who was extremely busy this night) I notice that the sound in the hall is somewhat muffled. I'll try a different location tomorrow. The horn/harp Sonata is an early 19^th century work in which the horn and harp play off each other, and together. Finally, the Madsen Trio is possibly the strongest of the night's efforts, a three-movement fast-slow-fast work in which the violin and horn effectively combine with the piano. Some of the chords are interesting, reminiscent of a jazz idiom in spots and returning to a somewhat modern classical motif shortly thereafter. OK, so music theory is not my strong point! ;-)

A reception is held afterwards (more food? Groan .. I pass). I find Peter Roll, who performs in the Austin Civic Orchestra, and we chat a bit. He and I are apparently the Austin confingent this year. I also spot Kendall Betts and discuss with him whether he's got any alternates for week two of his camp. My bad luck that he does not - it looks like my work is going to keep me from attending, despite efforts by my boss to prevent this. Anyone want to go to a great camp in New Hampshire later this month? See Kendall's web site and let me know …

Back to the room at a little after 10pm (it's still light out, by the way) to complete this and attempt to send it to all of y'all.

Respectfully submitted,
Ron Boerger