April 3, 1986

A post saved from the original Horn Notes Blog, posted first on 12/26/04.

In terms of horn playing 1986 was a good year for me. Just before Christmas this year (2004) I was at my parents house sorting out some stored items from the 1980s and in particular April 3, 1986 was in retrospect a rather good day for me. Two letters were sent to me that day which were saved and caught my interest last week as they have interesting ties to my current position at ASU.

One letter was from David Hickman. At the time he was organizing Summit Brass and was in particular organizing the first Keystone Brass Institute. I had very recently won one of the principal horn positions in the Colorado Philharmonic Orchestra (now known as the National Repertory Orchestra) and his letter was to offer me a full fellowship to attend the first Summit Brass event along with all the rest of the Colorado Philharmonic brass section. As a result, I was a full participant for the first week of the event and was present for the first of what turned out to be many concerts by the Summit Brass. I don’t believe that Professor Hickman would have had any reason to remember me from Keystone that summer but it was a first contact between us. David Hickman is of course Regents Professor of Trumpet at ASU, chair of the search committee that hired me, and master teacher of the studio next door to me, a legend of the brass world who sure had some vision back in 1986 organizing that group and event. Summit Brass events continue to this day; watch for news of what they have coming next summer.

The other letter dated April 3, 1986 is from Jon Engberg. I believe his title at that time was Associate Director for Academic Affairs at the Eastman School of Music, where I was then in my last semester of study. I earned my Masters degree and the Performers Certificate at Eastman but more importantly to this story I was the highest rated brass player in the concerto competition that year. The prize was I was given the opportunity to read my concerto, Strauss 2, with the Rochester Philharmonic in a reading session. The letter was to inform me that Maestro Semkow would not be able to conduct the readings but that several conductors around the school would be sharing conducting responsibilities for the event. In my own case, the conductor would be Timothy Russell, conductor of the University of Rochester Symphony Orchestra (Eastman is a part of the University of Rochester; this ensemble was for non-majors at the “river campus”). I vividly remember meeting with Dr. Russell in a conference room, the reading session, and the wife of my teacher Verne Reynolds congratulating me afterwards (she played in the violin section of the RPO). When I interviewed at ASU I remembered the event and mentioned it to Dr. Russell, who is now Director of Orchestras at ASU. He did not actually remember it–for him, it must have been one relatively minor event in a long list of conducting venues and orchestras–but it was at the time a wonderful opportunity for me.

Besides the great repertoire experience with the CPO (NRO) that summer I went on to advance and/or make the finals for several jobs that year as well. A good year, and one with unexpected connections to my current teaching.

And 24 years ago Bruce Hembd and I were both students at Eastman! Time flies.