Today is the annual general meeting of the I.H.S. … at 8AM! I struggle out of bed and shower to make the meeting, which at least has the benefit of being done concurrently with breakfast. The locations for the next two conferences are announced – Athens, Georgia in the US next May, Bejing China in 2000. Froydis Ree Werke is announced as president for the upcoming term; I think we all expect great things from her based on her track record and the success of this conference! I think Peter Kurau is announced as vice president; Jeff Snedeker is announced as Horn Call Editor (great new CD, by the way, Jeff); six new Advisory Council members are announced, three elected, three appointed. To my shame, I can’t remember any names. Catherine Roche-Wallace is announced as the proud new possessor of some incredibly long title that would give Professor G pride; basically she will be in charge of membership and retention for the next year, which will include surveying the I.H.S. membership to determine exactly what it is. Don’t forget the ‘band,’‘orchestra,’ or ‘both’ question ..

To give you an example of how well the conference went, nobody asked any questions during the open discussion period. Kudos to the trio of Isobel Rolston, David Hoyt, and Froydis Ree Werke!

I skip a couple of sessions to get the notes from earlier in the week done (how’s that for dedication? Or was it stupidity?) and miss a session on "Playing the Horn for Personal Gratification" by Virginia Thompson, and a Master Class by Karl Pituch. I do make it to a master class presented by Tsutomu Maruyama, the principal horn from the Ymouri Nippon Symphony. First up is a young gentleman (who I later discover is a college student) who is trying his best on the middle movement of one of the Mozart concerti (no. 3?). He appears extremely nervous but Maruyama-san does his best to put him at ease. Besides providing her usual wondrous accompaniment, Tomoku Kamanaru also acts as interpreter to assist with the finer points. Next up is Catherine Roche-Wallace (uh-oh, two mentions in one day, breaking the Law of Conference Summaries) who is performing Bozza’s En Foret. She does a fine job, but of course Maruyama-san comes up with many recommendations which do make a difference. Unfortunately time runs out before he’s done.

Next up is my first ensemble rehearsal. This year, our hosts have set up about eight ensembles open to all. Some of the best horn players on the planet are conducting the groups. I had missed two days rehearsals, but Jeff Snedeker was very kind and allowed me to play with his group anyway. We are doing the Civil arrangement of Mozart’s "Overture to the Magic Flute" and I sit down on 8^th with two other players. This is a pretty involved 8^th part – with runs and even 16^th notes (allegro at that) in the lower register. In other words, it’s a blast, and the three of us are pumping for all it’s worth. We also discuss a ‘surprise’ for the actual program on Saturday! Unfortunately this causes me to miss Marilyn Bone Kloss’ session on "How to Produce a Newsletter;" while I’m pretty comfortable with doing this, there’s always something new to be learned and I regret missing it.

I cut the 4pm afternoon concert in an effort to get a C$70 refund on the parks admission I paid on Monday. Late Thursday there are signs up in the Music & Sound building saying that if you paid a park entrance fee, you could get a refund by stopping by the community services office at the Centre, getting a working pass, and taking that with your receipt (which I kept for some reason) to the local Parks Canada office. OK, I get the working pass and head down into Banff proper. I tell the person at the information counter what I’m there for, and immediately another parks officer asks me "and what business are you here on?" When I inform him that I am attending a session at the Center, he informs me in no uncertain terms that I am a delegate and thus not entitled to a refund. OK, I’m not going to argue – it’s not my country – so I head back to the community services office to let them know that it’s not working. As I am the second person to report this, the young woman in the office tells me that she will call her boss, who will call the people at Parks Canada, and they’ll give me a ring if it works out. As it is already after 4 and with the office closing at 5, I don’t hold out much hope. However, shortly after 5 I get a call in the room, and she says that everything has been worked out, and to try again tomorrow. We’ll see ..

The 4pm concert included:

• Farkas Competition Winner

• Sonatine - Harald Genzmer;
  5-Headed Hydra - Alain Louvier;
  Nancy Cochran Block, horn
• Quartet for 3 horns, oboe, and basson - L. von Beethoven;
  Kurt Kellan, Robert McCosh, Joan Watson, horns

After dinner we have another massed horn choir rehearsal. By now we have found out that we will be opening the 2^nd half of the concert and that we will only play the first and sixth movements of the Water Music. Things go well – Paul Mansur is a perfect conductor for this sort of group.

The evening concert gives us Ab Koster and the Liege Horn Quartet: