IHS Brisbane 2010, Part I: Prelude and Welcome

The first event of the 42^nd International Horn Symposium in Brisbane was on Sunday afternoon. But for members of the Advisory Council the event began on Saturday with more than ten hours of meetings and four more on Sunday morning.

To set the scene a bit, the hotel I am at is connected to the convention center and also is just across the street from the Conservatorium so everything for the event is close, split between these two venues. The Brisbane River is behind the Conservatorium and there are places to walk along the river and also toward shopping either over there or away from the river. And with it being winter in Australia the weather here is just gorgeous. The photo is an overall view of the area; the Conservatorium is behind the big Ferris wheel and the hotel behind that.

The first question I believe many readers might have is what do you do in over fourteen hours of meetings before a Symposium? As I start my second term on the Advisory Council I can assure you in there is a lot to address. To back up, the Advisory Council is the fifteen member body that effectively runs the IHS. To quote the bylaws, “The Advisory Council shall be responsible for carrying out the aims and purposes of the Society and determining Society policy. It shall have the ultimate and final charge in management of Society affairs excepting certain matters pertaining to the Annual Workshop.” Without going into gory details this year we have a 170 page agenda book to work through. Not all the business is done for this year as I write this, we will have several more meetings over the course of the workshop, but business is largely done I am happy to report.

The breaking news, just approved for release, is that IHS43 will be on the campus of San Francisco State University June 20-25, 2011. Be watching www.hornsociety.org for more details.

Turning back to Brisbane, my impression now that I am here after a relatively pleasant 14 hour direct flight from Los Angeles and three days on the ground is that this is a great venue for this event, really better than it seemed it might be just looking at photos and reading the descriptions. I sure hope some people make it to this workshop as it looks like it should be great.

Sunday afternoon was the first event of the symposium, the Welcome Ceremony. This was held at the Conservatorium as will be the majority of events and featured the “IHS42 Horn Ensemble,” Jeff Snedeker, and the American Horn Quartet. For an opening concert it was pretty eclectic. With a neat, newly written work for 16 horns Under Southern Skies by Sean O’Boyle (conducted by the composer) opening the event, the other works listed on the program were the James Nicholas Sonata No. 3 for natural horn and piano and Kerry Turner Waltzing Matilda.

Snedeker was on natural horn for this fairly recent work which was subtitled by the composer “Searching.” The subtitle is full of meaning as of course especially on natural horn we end up searching for the notes. I hope it is not a theme for the week! He had an encore as well, Le Basque like Dennis Brain played but on natural horn. A great surprise.

The concert closed with the first of what will be a number of performances by the American Horn Quartet. More about the AHQ later in the week but they sound in great form after their recent personnel change. They had two surprises on their part of the concert. Waltzing Matilda had two offstage horns which was very effective in the hall and also an encore, a brand new arrangement of Moon River.

In final random notes,

• One thing I did know was that the Internet probably would not be included with the room so I am opting to only access the Internet a short time every day (which is does not actually cramp writing these posts too much as I normally write drafts as Word documents) but also I did not know they use a different type of plug here! A trip over the river to the nearby mall solved that problem with the purchase of a converter.
• Rumor is that less people than they expected attended the ITG event and we may duplicate that at the horn event. Which is a shame as again it looks like ours will be a great one. If you are in the area reading this and have not planned to come to the event you should find a way to be here even briefly.
• Even with just a few days here I am sure this is a place I would love to visit again with my family. Keep it in mind if you are thinking of international travel.

I should be able to post every day I am here so be sure to be looking for more news from the symposium as the week goes forward, and while you are at it tell a friend to check out Horn Matters for these reports and also all the other great content in the site.

Continue to Part II