American Horn Quartet Interview


An inside look into a successful rarity in the chamber music world.

Established in 1982 by four replanted Americans who perform and teach in Europe, the American Horn Quartet (AHQ) is probably the most well-known horn quartet in the business. One of their members includes Kerry Turner, whose original compositions are an absolute joy to both play and listen to.

Their recently released CD, “Myths and Legends” features original works by Eric Ewazen, Kerry Turner and Kazimierz Machala.

A 45-minute video from Polyphonic.org offers some insight into the ensemble and how it operates as an organization. Because the members live in different locations throughout Europe, coordinating rehearsals and concerts takes a great deal of responsibility and cooperation.

While the title of the video implies a topic of playing opportunities in Europe, the discussion encompasses much more.

For any chamber music group interested in establishing themselves as a performing entity, any American interested in working in Europe, or for anyone just interested in the AHQ, this video offers a great deal of information.

It is indexed, making it very easy to fast-forward to specific topics of interest.

BRUCE HEMBD is a web marketing developer by day who plays French horn professionally at night.» More information about Bruce Hembd » More articles by Bruce Hembd » Contact

Related to this article


  • Muted or Stopped in American in Paris?
    I enjoyed hearing the ASU Symphony concert last night. One of the works on the program was American in Paris by George Gershwin. In this work there are a number of stopped passages. These were performed well by the ASU horn players, bravo! Great intonation, and...
  • A Quartet of Hosers
    Hose-horns en force. What a great idea for a children’s concert! I like how they use a support beam to hold the horn bells high in the air. Additional resource: The Hosaphone Headquarters...
  • Parody: Horns of Different Flavors and American Gothic
    At some point, everyone believes that their instrument brand of choice is good and therefore perhaps good for others – this is perfectly natural and understandable. Less understandable is when this preference digresses into intolerance towards anyone or anything that is different or does not agree....
  • Natural Horn Recordings, Methods, More
    Although there have not been many comments yet on the “new” blog (it was impossible to leave comments on the original HTML blog), I have enjoyed reading the comments that have been made. A couple of them thus far have been related to the natural horn....
  • Guadalupe, a New Concert Opera by James DeMars
    When I was contacted about playing in the orchestra for Guadalupe, a new concert opera by ASU colleague James DeMars, I was immediately interested as he mentioned that the performing ensemble would also include several leading Native American artists including in particular R. Carlos Nakai. My...
  • Clash of the Titans, AFM vs. RMA, Part I
    Attempting to comprehend the RMA/AFM conflict. For weeks now I have been trying to understand the discourse between the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) and the Recording Musicians Association (RMA). Normally I would leave a topic like this to the people that are “in-the-know.” However since...
  • Clarinet Soft
    Listening to the special master class today at ASU with the Juilliard Quartet and members of the wind, horn, and bass studios reading the Schubert Octet reminded me yet again the importance of soft playing! There are lots of spots that have to be “clarinet soft”...

Comments ()


John Ericson & Bruce Hembd
on the French horn, brass related topics, and the field of classical music.