The British Horn Society - News Archive 1996

Paxman Prizewinner

Jennifer Montone from the U.S.A. won the Paxman Young Horn Player competition. The final, held at London's Guildhall School of Music on Sunday 8 December 1996, was between Jennifer, James Nickel, also from the U.S.A., and Rupert Johnston and Mark Almond from the U.K..

Each of the four finalists played a demanding programme:

James Nickel:
Glière: Intermezzo
Mozart: Concerto No.4
Ketting: Intrada
Rossini: Prelude, Theme and Variations

Rupert Johnston:
Bozza: En Forêt
Glazunov: Reverie
Mozart: Concerto No.2

Mark Almond:
Bourgeois: Fantasy Piece for Solo Horn
Cherubini: Sonata No.2
Franz Strauss: Concerto
Bozza: En Forêt
Marais: Le Basque

Jennifer Montone:
Mozart: Concerto No.2 (1st movt.)
Reynolds: Partita (2nd movt.)
Glazunov: Reverie
Richard Strauss: Concerto No.1

In front of the distinguished jury of leading horn players - Timothy Jones, Frank Lloyd, Hugh Seenan, Michael Thompson and Richard Watkins - each of the finalists demonstrated playing of a very high technical standard, coupled with remarkable endurance. On the night Jennifer, accompanied by Andrew Black, clinched the title with a display of considerable emotional power, which demonstrated enviable security too, only nicking two notes in the whole of her performance.

Jennifer's prize is a specially built Paxman horn, which will be built to her specification over the next few weeks, and presented to her in New York.

Mark Almond, who is 17, received the award from the British Horn Trust for the Best Player of School Age.

The players in the final rounds were:

Neil Shewan (UK)
Born in 1978, Neil lives in Royston, Hertfordshire, and attends Hills Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge where he is studying for A-Levels. His horn teacher is Willi Watson. He has been principal horn of the National Youth Orchestra for the past 3 years, and principal horn of the National Youth Chamber Orchestra in 1994 and 1996. He was a Grand Finalist in the 1994 Junior Musician of the Year and a semi-finalist in the 1995 Shell-LSO competition.

Catherine Rattray (UK)
Born in 1975, Catherine is currently in her final year at the Royal Academy of Music where she is a student of Derek Taylor. She has toured South America and Europe as a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra. Solo experience includes performances of Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, horn and strings, and Mozart’s 3rd and 4th concertos. She was a semi-finalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year in 1994, and prizes include the Lesley Regan Brass Prize in 1994 and the F.Ayling Prize for outstanding student of the year in 1996 at the Royal Academy.

Angela Cordell (USA)
Born in 1977, Angela is a native of Florida. She is currently a student at Florida State University as a French horn performance major. She studies horn with Dr.William Capps.

Ivan Vatchev (Bulgaria)
Born in 1974 in Plovdiv. Ivan is currently in his 3rd year at the Plovdiv Academy of Music & Dance, studying under Stoyan Karaivanov. Amongst other competition successes, Ivan was the first prize-winner at the Second International Brass Competition, "Nizhni-Novgorod Brass 1996". He has performed extensively as a soloist and orchestral musician in Bulgaria and Russia.

Richard Steggall (UK)
Born in 1976 in Portsmouth, Richard is an Exhibitioner at the Royal College of Music, where he is currently in his 3rd year, studying with Julian Baker and Philip Eastop. In 1993 he joined the National Youth Orchestra, and in 1994 was a semi-finalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. Recent solo performances include Mozart’ 3rd horn concerto with the Petersfield Orchestra and the "echo horn" part in Simon Bainbridge's "Landscape and Memory" with the Royal College of Music 20th Century Ensemble.

James Nickel (USA)
James, a native of Florida, is currently working for a Masters degree at the New England Conservatory, where he studies with Charles Kavalovski and Eric Ruske. At the age of 15 he was a finalist in the General Motors/Seventeen Magazine National Concerto competition. James has performed as soloist with the Florida Orchestra, the Oberlin Chamber Symphony, the Tampa Bay Symphony, the New England Conservatory and the New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble. He is also a finalist for the New World Symphony Orchestra in Miami, and works as an extra with the Florida Orchestra.

Matthew Gunner (UK)
Born in 1974, Matthew was a Scholar at Wells Cathedral School, where he studied the horn under Simon de Souza. From there he gained a scholorship at the Royal College of Music, where he was a student of Richard Watkins. He is now at the Royal Academy of Music, where he is studying both with Richard Watkins and Philip Eastop. He was a Scholar at the Prague/Budapest Summer Academy, and was winner of the Gerald MacDonald Scholarship in the Shell/LSO competition in 1991. He has taken part in master-classes with Barry Tuckwell, Ifor James, Froydis ree Wekre, Jeffrey Bryant and Hans Pizka, and has played with, amongst others, the National Youth Orchestra, Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.

Rupert Johnston (UK)
Born in London in 1978. In 1986, Rupert became a chorister at King's College, Cambridge, where he spent 4 years before moving on to Wells Cathedral School. Whilst here, studying with Simon de Souza, he joined the National Youth Orchestra, becoming principal horn of the Chamber Orchestra in his final year. In 1995, Rupert won the Gerald MacDonald prize in the Shell/LSO competition. He is presently at the Guildhall School of Music where he is a student of Hugh Seenan.

Mark Almond (UK)
Born in Cheshire in 1979, Mark attends Bolton School in Lancashire, and his horn teachers are David Cripps and Derek Taylor. He started studying the French horn at the age of 11, having been playing the tenor horn since the age of 8. At the age of 14 he joined the National Youth Orchestra. In 1996 he became principal horn of the National Youth Chamber Orchestra and co-principal of the National Youth Orchestra.

Evgeny Chebykin (UK)
Born in 1979 in Moldova his family moved to Australia in 1995. Evgeny started playing the horn at the age of 9, and started at the Purcell School and the Intermediate School of the Royal Academy of Music in 1994. He is presently studying the French horn with Richard Watkins. In 1992 he was the 1st prize winner both in the All Union "Youth Assemblies of Arts" competition and in the Moscow Brass competition. In 1993 he took the 2nd prize at the Moscow International competition and the 1st prize at the International Wind Instruments Competition in Rumania. He has performed as soloist in France, the USA and the UK, and has been a member of the National Youth Orchestra since 1995.

Jean-Emmanuel Prou (France)
Born in 1970 in Nantes. After studies in Nantes and Ville d'Avray, Jean-Emmanuel went to the Paris Conservatoire in 1990, where he studied with Andre Cazalet. Whilst there, in June 1993 he won the Conservatoire's Premier Prix. In 1995 he moved on to to the Conservatoire de Musique de Geneve, where he is currently studying under Bruno Schneider. Jean-Emmanuel has worked with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Pays de Loire, the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, the Orchestre de Bretagne and the Orchestre des Concerts Lamoreux.

Jennifer Montone (USA)
Born in 1977, Jennifer is presently in her 2nd year at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, where she is studying with Julie Landsman, principal horn of the Metropolitan Opera. She is a member of the Juilliard Symphony and the Juilliard Orchestra. She has studied as a National Symphony Orchestra Youth Fellow, studying with Edwin Thayer, during which time she was awarded the H.Stevens Brewster Memorial scholarship Chosen as a 1995 Presidential Scholar in the Arts, Jennifer has won both the 1995 National Symphony Orchestra's Young Soloist Competition and the Wind Division of the 1994 General Motors/Seventeen Magazine National Concerto Competition. She has performed as a soloist with the Arlington Symphony Orchestra, the American Youth Philharmonic, the Levine Metropolitan Wind Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra.

The world's most famous horn player, (and British Horn Society President), Barry Tuckwell's final London solo performance on August 13 1996 proved a sell-out, with tumultuous applause following his lively performance of Mozart's Third Horn Concerto. The evening was seen as the climax of what is a nine-month Farewell Tour.

Early in the programme there had been a similar reception for the first London rendering of Oliver Knussen's single movement Horn Concerto, Op.28, the composer joining the performers on the stage to receive the accolades. (A recording of the Knussen Concerto is due for release on DG.)

The broadcast event took place at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms season. For both concertos, Barry was accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by the Finn, Esa-Pekka Salonen. A varied programme also included Stravinsky's Symphony of Wind Instruments, Debussy's Nocturnes and Sibelius' Symphony No.7.

Orchestral horn players for the evening were Laurence Rogers, Robert Maskell, Laurence Davies, Cormac O'Haodain and 'bump', Philip Woods.

Barry Tuckwell's final British performances were to have been with the Northern Sinfonia, playing in and conducting a series of three concerts in the north of England in November, but sadly Barry suffered back trouble, and his place as soloist was taken by principal horn Peter Francomb. The bad luck didn't end there - the concerts were due to include the world premiere of Richard Rodney Bennett's "Swansong", but due to "a bad case of writer's block" the composer was unable to complete the work in time.

David Pyatt's debut solo recording of the Strauss Horn Concertos with the Britten Sinfonia and Nicholas Cleobury for EMI Eminence won the Prestigious Gramophone magazine Young Artist of the Year Award. David has also been appointed co-principal horn of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and has also secured a three year recording contract with Erato. The first recording to be made will be a recital CD which will be followed by a recording of the Mozart horn concertos and Concerto Rondo with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner, and possibly the Mozart Wind Quintet.

The New York Philharmonic horn section recently made European news, and not just in London with their performances of Till Eulenspiegel and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.5 under Kurt Masur at the BBC Proms. In May 1996 Bob Osmun, the US distributor for Engelbert Schmid delivered five of the German manufacturer's horns to members of the section.

NYPO principal horn, the larger than life Phil Myers first tried Engelbert Schmid instruments at the New York Brass Conference in 1995, purchasing a full, wide bore triple in December. In February he formally ended his contractual relationship with United Musical Instruments, the manufacturers of Conn horns. Phil has played Conns since 1969 and in recent times has been the subject of a series of amusing advertisements placed by the maker, The three other members of the NYPO section subsequently ordered Schmids. These and a second horn, a double, for Phil were delivered with only hours to spare before the orchestra's final concert of the New York 1995-1996 season. The result was that the quartet, Phil, Eric Ralske, Alan Spanjer and Jerome Ashby, were able to feel confident about leaving their Conns behind when they embarked on their European tour.

Their time in London included, as one would expect, a visit to Paxman's Union Street shop where, we are pleased to report, Phil joined the growing ranks of the British Horn Society.

Further to Jonathan Stoneman's interview in the Horn Magazine with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, we hear from Richard Watkins that the composer is now planning to write a full horn concerto. As mentioned in Jonathan's previous article on modern composers, Colin Matthews is also scheduled to write a concerto for Richard which he now expects to perform with the Philharmonia in 1999.

London Symphony Orchestra principal horn, Hugh Seenan was married to Zoe Lovell in St Mary's Church, Dartington early in September 1996. Zoe is PA to the film composer, John Debney, whose recent works include the score for 'Cut Throat Island'. Our best wishes to the couple who honeymooned in Venice.

Chris Huning was appointed Managing Director of Paxman Ltd in July 1996. Chris, who hails from Bath joined the company in 1989, taking over from Chris Tout as Sales Manager. He was first appointed a director in February 1995.

Chris studied at the University of Leeds 1980-85 and Royal College of Music 1985-86. He subsequently worked as a freelance musician and, just prior to joining Paxmans, for Classical Music magazine.

Leading UK freelance, Pip Eastop has been awarded an Arts Council Artist's Research and Development Grant to collaborate with composer Edward Williams. They are exploring and developing the use of the acoustic sounds of the horn in live performance with prepared electronic modification of these sounds, using the Composers Desktop Project software, and articulated in real time, either by the player's own body movements - or perhaps by those of a dancer - in four ultra sonic beams.

1996 was a challenging and enjoyable one so far for the horn section of Ireland's National Symphony Orchestra. Based in Dublin, the orchestra's year began with a performance on January 12 of Mozart's Concertante for 4 solo wind and orchestra, conducted by principal conductor, Kasper de Roo. The solo part was played by the NSO's principal horn, Lesley Bishop. It was something of a rarity, performed with what is thought to be the original scoring of flute (not clarinet), oboe, horn and bassoon. the horn part is considerably more florid than the "usual" version and made for a slightly less relaxing Christmas break than anticipated for Lesley, but it was great to have this enjoyable and seldom heard work played to such a large and enthusiastic audience. Two weeks later Fergus O'Carroll, NSO co - principal, swapped his bell for a baton and conducted the orchestra in a programme of Wagner Rienzi Overture, Mozart's Violin concerto in A (top B's night out!) and Schumann's "Rhenish" Symphony No. 3.

Another very "horny" nights work!

February 3 saw perhaps the most exciting premiere held in Dublin for some time - a new symphony by the eminent Irish composer John Kinsella, No 6, scored for full orchestra with the addition of three "off - stage" solo horns. It was conducted by Prionnias O'Duinn, Principal Conductor of the RTE concert orchestra and went out live on RTE FM3 Radio. John Kinsella was formerly head of music for Ireland's broadcasting company, Radio Telefis Eireann, who fund and manage the NSO and knows us well as friends and colleagues. the inspiration for the composition was his relationship with seven close friends over many years hence the seven horn parts. The three solo players are placed separately outside the orchestras perimeter, and play with both the tutti sections and on their own. The piece is in one continuous movement and lasts about 35 minutes.

My particular memory of the performance is a somewhat amusing one - I was standing in the choir balcony feeling rather stupid blowing my head off into the faces of these rather smartly dressed people when I realised that a gentleman right next to me had actually fallen asleep, snoring loudly, if not rhythmically, throughout the entire performance, which rather put the whole experience into perspective!

The following week saw a performance of Bruckner 7 conducted by De Roo when the regular NSO section (Lesley, Fergus, Ian, Tom and Dave) were joined by local colleagues Shane O'Neill and Cormac O'Hayden plus Richard Wainwright and Tony Catterick on Wagner Tubas. We finished off February with Bruckner 3 and 4 and performed Shostakovitch 7 in Dublin and Belfast on March 1. All in all a very good months blow. The season has continued with an Irish tour - five New Worlds in a week -, Mahler 4, Shostakovitch 15, Walton 1 conducted by Adrian Leaper, plus recordings for Naxos of Rachmaninov Symphonies 1 & 3. Never a dull moment, and you all thought we stay here for the GUINNESS?

Lesley Bishop

From the press...

"Barry Tuckwell.....has been called the 'Jascha Heifetz of the horn' - a comparison which alludes to his agility on an instrument notorious for being anything but." Edward Seckerson, The Independent

"Bloody hard work and horribly unpredictable." Barry Tuckwell, The Independent.

"I found an instrument I wanted to play. I think a lot of people never find the right instrument." Barry Tuckwell, BBC Music Magazine

"I was not prepared for what greeted me when I walked on stage. Gazing round the expanse of the Albert Hall, the last thing I expected was for the front row of Prommers, many ex-NYO members, to start distracting the orchestra with good-natured banter!" Neil Shewan, BBC Music Magazine

The horn quartet of Michael Thompson, Richard Watkins, Richard Bissill and John Pigneguy have returned to Paul McCartney's studio to record another two movements for his work, 'Stately Horns'. This was originally a one movement piece, but following what Mike calls "a gentle nudge" from the horn players, more has been written. The difference, Mike says, is that where the first movement was similar for all four horns, the next two have a traditional first horn part. A live performance is promised for next year.

Mike and Richard are involved in another quartet recording this month, this time with Richard Berry and Peter Blake. The four are joining with the King's Singers for a programme of male voices and horns which includes music by Schubert and Schumann. Mike and Richard Berry have also been involved in a recent Naxos recording of Franz Krommer's works, including his Parthia in Eb with two solo horns.

John Winch 1937-1996

John Winch entered the Royal Artillery School of Music in 1953 studying both 'cello and horn, the latter with Denzil Floyd and, on several occasions with Aubrey Brain. A serious illness meant that he left the army in 1957. He was then to enter the Performers Course at the Guildhall School, studying with Francis Bradley. From there he joined the orchestra of the London Palladium, moving on to become sub-principal horn of the Sadlers Wells Opera Company and then principal of the Royal Ballet Orchestra. In 1965 John, who for most of his career played on Alexander instruments, joined the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra as solo horn, returning to London five years later to freelance. In 1971 he began a long period working for the Dacorum Division of the Hertfordshire Music Service as a brass instructor. A wide variety of freelance work included playing in such as 'Top of the Pops' and the 'Miss World' contest. Musicals included 'A Little Night Music', 'Evita' and, latterly, 'Les Miserables'.

Ill health forced John to leave the show late last year. He was diagnosed as having leukaemia and after a very brave fight, he passed away on June 13.

A 'Celebration for the Life of John Winch' was held at Berkhamstead School for Boys in September 15, an event which was attended by many fellow horn players and ex-pupils.

Tony Catterick

The horn appeared in a most unlikely quarter, The Caravan Club's magazine, En Route. A number of brass players, who had never met before, got together at this year's Caravan Club National rally to peform beneath an awning. The event was duly illustrated in the club's magazine with horn player, Sally Gough from Somerset to the fore.

Dennis Brain Prizewinner

Steven James has won the Royal Academy of Music's coveted Dennis Brain Prize. This is the Academy's most prestigious horn prize, which is awarded every other year. Special congratulations to Steven, who is still in his first year at the Academy.

The performances, of the Richard Strauss first horn concerto, were judged by Julian Baker, who chose not to award a 2nd place. Matthew Gunner was placed third.

Steven's horn professors are Richard Watkins and Pip Eastop. Before going to the Academy he studied privately with Pip Eastop for three years.

Other Horn News pages: