For the next few days, much of the horn world can be found in Muncie, Indiana for the 50th International Horn Symposium, hosted by Gene Berger at Ball State University. The theme of this year’s symposium is “The Golden History of Horn,” and throughout the week there will be several special events commemorating the last 50 years of symposia. IHS 50 got off to a rousing start this morning at the 10:00 a.m. opening concert, featuring members of the IHS Advisory Council and friends. Here’s the program from the opening concert (the full symposium program can be found online here)
Howard Buss,“Fanfare for a Golden Era” for 15 horns *World Premiere
Christopher Wiggins, Suite # 5 for Eight horns op. 169 *World Premiere
Richard Strauss/arr. Peter Damm, Eine (kleine) Alpensinfonie op. 64 for 15 horns, organ and glockenspiel
The Buss and Wiggins premieres were exciting, but the star of this program was of course Peter Damm’s arrangement of the Strauss. Despite being a fraction of the length of the full orchestral work, Damm’s adaptation captured all of the big horn moments from Strauss’s mammoth tone poem, including the off-stage brass. This piece is unpublished, and as such is seldom performed. It was truly a memorable event, see above for a photo of the ensemble just after the performance. I should also add that Ball State University has gorgeous music facilities, and a very beautiful campus overall. Most of the performances, lectures, and exhibits are located within a short walk of each other.
After a quick lunch I got set up for my presentation, Brass Trio Repertoire: Beyond Poulenc, based on an article I published in the 2015 Horn Call. It went very well, and the audience seemed quite interested in finding out more about original music for brass trio. The highlight for me was getting to catch up with my former teacher, Douglas Hill, who attended the presentation.
Next, I had a rehearsal with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Horn Choir, Directed by Dr. Catherine Roche-Wallace. It was an honor to perform with them as part of the prelude music for the evening concert. Their program was as follows:
Thomas Jöstlein, Campbell Fanfare
Engelbert Humperdinck, Prelude-Chorale from “Hansel und Gretel” arr. Jeffery Kirschen
James Naigus, Halcyon
Percy Grainger, Selections from Lincolnshire Posy, arr. Dick Meyer
Eric Ewazen, Grand Canyon Octet (I. Allegro maestoso)
Bravo to Dr. Roche-Wallace and her students on a great performance, and thanks for asking me to play!
After the rehearsal I attended a bit of the 4:00 p.m. concert. I had to leave early to grab some dinner before the 6:15 p.m. Prelude performance, but had a chance to hear some fantastic playing by Katie Johnson-Webb from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville (Sonatas by Trygve Madsen and Wolfgang Plagge) and Jonathan Gannon from Florida A&M University (Earth Songs by Laurence Lowe).
The evening concert featured Elizabeth Freimuth, Principal Horn of the Cincinnati Symphony, and Robert Danforth, Principal Horn of the Indianapolis Symphony. The program included frequently performed works like the Villanelle by Paul Dukas, and some less frequently-performed works like Kurt Atterberg’s Concerto, Op. 28 and Franz Anton Rossler’s Concerto in Eb. I have heard both of these pieces in the past, but it has been a while, and hearing these virtuoso performers has inspired me to give them a second look. The Rossler sounds a little like Mozart, as he was a direct contemporary, but with more ornamentation. The Atterberg is a true tour de force, and Elizabeth Freimuth’s performance was especially noteworthy. One last word about this concert, and a general theme for horn conferences and symposia, is that there are lots of really different (but equally valid) solo horn sounds out there. Tonight’s soloists sounded very different from each other, but they both played beautifully. For those who might be interested, based on what I could see from the audience Freimuth performed on a Knopf-style brass horn, and Danforth performed on (I believe) a silver Schmidt-style horn. It was a fantastic program, but being worn out from my all-day drive to Muncie the day before, I left after intermission to get a head start on some rest.
That’s all for this report. Check back soon for more!
James Boldin's Horn World 
Great report James! Thank you! JPO
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