Memories of Horn Choirs Past, and Renovations at Our Old Stomping Ground

One of the things I enjoy every year is conducting a performance by the ASU Horn Choir. In the fall we work almost always on works arranged or composed for 8 horns in a manner that are laid out basically as two four part choirs that play antiphonally. This year we played today in Brass Area the last movement of the LoPresti Suite, An die Sterne by Robert Schumann (a choral work, arr. Carr) and the first two movements of Legend of the Sleeping Bear by Eric Ewazen. Bravo to the horn studio! It was a great performance.

While we did not play these same works when I was at Eastman, I have since my student days there especially enjoyed this type of work for large horn ensemble, works for two antiphonal four part choirs of horns. They are great to hear sonically in the audience, work out well to actually perform for pacing the chops, are pedagogically solid as projects to build the sound of the studio, and are a lot of fun to conduct. I had the best seat in the house!

At Eastman when I was a student one big annual event was the Eastman Horn Choir performing a Christmas concert in the main hall of the school. Bruce Hembd and I were both in school there at the same time, as I noted in this prior post (and in Arizona I was actually the final chair of his Masters degree committee, but that is another story).

For both of us I am sure Eastman remains an “old stomping ground” in our memories. Recently they completed renovations to the hall we would have called Eastman Theatre. The rebuilt hall looks great and is featured in three brief videos now on YouTube; the below is my favorite of the group.

Seeing the video certainly makes me want to visit the place again someday. It is hard to believe that Bruce and I both used to play concerts there half a lifetime ago. I don’t know if they still do the end of semester main hall performance with the horn choir, but I hope they still do, it is certainly one of the treasured memories I have of my study there. Cor Carols anyone?