The British Horn Society - News Archive 2001

For the first time, a Briton has won the Paxman Young Horn Player of the Year competition. Guildhall final year student, Neil Shewan came from a self-confessed "underdog" position as runner-up in the British round to take the final with a certain degree of panache. Once again, the judges had to decide between technical expertise and entertainment value and almost outdid the US Supreme Court in the length of their deliberations. Performing on home ground, Neil was the one to benefit following his performance of Strauss's second Horn Concerto. As one of them said, he "grabbed the piece by the scruff of the neck".

More than 70 players took part in the qualifying rounds, although lack of support from France meant that contestants from that country had to enter the German round. The winner at the Folkwang Hochschule, Essen, performing the Franz Strauss Theme & Variations and Strauss first Horn Concerto with what was described as a "flawless technique", was Zoltan Nagy from the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest. Over in the USA, at the University of Georgia, Athens, John Manganaro played the Dukas Villanelle and Mozart second Horn Concerto to win his passage across the Atlantic. The worthy winner of the British round, Mark Almond, also chose the Mozart, to which he added Cherubini's Sonata No.2.

With only three rounds, it was decided to open up the competition to the best of the runners-up, thus repeating the four-player final of 1998. That brought in Neil for his performances of the Rossini Prelude, Theme and Variations and Strauss One. It is on the day that matters and with Mark unable to repeat his qualifying round and rehearsal performances, and Zoltan's refined playing perhaps being a bit too understated, it was Neil who came through with what was described as a "courageous and committed" performance. However, the words of one of the judges, Jeff Bryant, "Anybody who walked onto that stage was a hero". Neil, who used an ex-Hugh Seenan Paxman Model 25, admitted that it was "one of the scariest moments of my life", but as Jeff said, a hall full of horn players has to be "the worst audience".

Both the British contestants chose to perform the second Strauss Horn Concerto, while John and Zoltan played Joseph Hadyn's first. All were backed by the Guildhall School of Music & Drama Sinfonia, conducted with great enthusiasm by BBC Concert Orchestra principal horn, Stephen Bell. The Guildhall Horn Ensemble also provided the entertainment during part of the time that the jury was away by performing Jim Lowe's arrangement of Bruckner's Praludium and, from the London Horn Sound, Eric Crees's great version of Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture.

The Finalists

John Manganaro (22) is a native of San Diego, California, USA, and started playing the horn at age 14. He is currently pursuing a performance degree at San Diego State University, studying horn with John Lorge (Principal horn, San Diego Symphony), and Jerry Folsom (Principal horn, Los Angeles Philharmonic). He has worked with the San Diego Opera, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Orquesta de Baja California. He has appeared as soloist with, amongst others, the San Diego Young Artists Orchestra, the San Diego Youth Symphony and the SDSU Symphony and Wind Symphony Orchestras.

Mark Almond (20) is from Bolton, Lancashire, UK. He began to play the horn at the age of 11, under the tuition of Christopher Wormald. He is currently in his final year of a medical degree at Cambridge University. Mark's orchestral experience ranges from principal horn in the National Youth Orchestra and the European Union Youth Orchestra, to working regularly with the London Symphony Orchestra. He recently played guest principal horn with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and was asked to tour Europe with the Ensemble Moderne, Frankfurt. Mark has performed concerti with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Halle and the LSO, and was awarded the Silver Medal in the Shell/LSO scholarship. This is the second time Mark has reached the competition final; in 1996 he came runner-up and was awarded the Best Under 18 Prize. He is currently taught by Hugh Seenan.

Zolton Nagy (23), from Mohacs in Hungary, started playing the trumpet at the age of 14. Moving on to the horn, he studied in Mohacs and then in Pecs, and is now a student at the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy in Budapest, where he is taught by Professor Adam Friedrich. In 1999, Zoltan was a prizewinner at the Stams Horn Competition in Austria, and was the first prizewinner in the Philip Farkas competition at the International Horn Symposium in Athens, Georgia, USA.

Neil Shewan (23) began playing the horn at the age of nine. He has played for both the National Youth Orchestra and the European Union Youth Orchestra. He is now in his fourth year of the B.Mus course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he is taught by Hugh Seenan, Richard Bissill and Jeffrey Bryant. Neil has played with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the Royal Opera House, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Fine Arts Brass Ensemble in a variety of concerts and recordings, and is currently principal horn of the National Musicians' Symphony Orchestra. His London solo debut was at St.John's Smith Square at the age of 17, when he performed Mozart's Horn Concerto No.4.

The Jury

Hugh Seenan (Chairman)*, Frank Lloyd*, Dr Jean Martin*, Nigel Black, Jeff Bryant, David Pyatt, Richard Watkins*. *Qualifying round hosts

Paxman Young Horn Player of the Year:
1996 Jennifer Montone (USA)
1998 Julian Meriglier (France)
2000 Neil Shewan (United Kingdom)

Neil Shewan, the Paxman Horn Player of the Year, has joined the Fine Arts Brass Ensemble, replacing Stephen Roberts who left the group last October after 20 years of sterling service. Neil's first rehearsal in January 2001 included work on quintets by Tilson Thomas, Previn, Ned Rorem and William Bolcom for an upcoming FABE/Nimbus Records release, and a visit from Roxanna Panufnik who is writing a new piece for FABE for the Warwick Festival in July this year.

The Edinburgh Horn Jamboree is becoming a regular event. The third in the series took place on September 8. The Jamboree now has a web site, www.hornjamboree.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

Chris Crawley, principal horn in the St Albans Symphony Orchestra, has composed a song-cycle for mezzo-soprano and orchestra, which was premiered on July 7 to considerable critical acclaim in the local press. The settings of texts by W.B.Yeats, D.H.Lawrence and Shakespeare were given a fine performance by singer Deborah Miles-Johnson and conducted by Andrew Parnell. The St Albans Observer's critic claimed to have been "bowled over by the sheer impact" of the songs, while the Herts Advertiser hoped that "they find the place they deserve in the wider repertoire". Chris is currently working on a piece for large symphony orchestra.

The 2001 Independent Schools Horn Day, the fifth to date, took place at Radley College in Oxfordshire, on February 6th. Joining the regular participants from Wells Cathedral School and Radley College (teacher Simon de Souza), Uppingham and Oundle Schools (Peter Merry) and Winchester College (Peter Widgery) were Miles Hewitt and his pupils from Westminster School. Guest artist Steve Stirling gave two fascinating and inspiring master classes and seminars on the importance of risk taking in horn playing and the Mozart Concertos. Willing victims, all of whom performed splendidly and received invaluable guidance from Steve were Tim French (Strauss 2), Katherine Medway (Gwilt Sonatina), Luke Norland (Mozart 3) and Andrew Littlemore (Mozart 1). Steve then performed a short but brilliant recital accompanied by Radley staff member Liz Hayes, and joined forces with Simon, Peter, Miles and Peter to perform two quintets by Julian Baker, whose composing talents had hitherto been unsuspected by us all! The forty students finished the day with an informal concert of massed items by Frolich and Brahms with parts cunningly arranged to suit all standards by Peter Merry, and conducted by Peter Widgery.

Photos of Jonathan Lipton loomed large in the centre pages of The Times on July 6. The LSO had been helping youngsters in Bosnia to overcome the traumas of the Balkan conflict through music.

Recent issues of The HORN Magazine have carried gloomy reports about the dearth of young people taking up the horn. In Leeds this is not the case (writes Paul Kampen), thanks to activities organised by the Leeds Music Support Service. Included is a Leeds Youth Horn Club, which operated last year and is to resume soon as a beginners' class. Although the standard of horn playing in the Leeds youth music groups is healthy, vacancies exist and enquiries from players of all standards are welcomed.

Horn teacher and co-ordinator for City of Leeds Youth Music is Stephen Wild, who studied at Leeds University with David Wise, having previously learnt with Bill Davies at the Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff. Stephen is also active as a conductor and composer and one of his compositions - "Some thoughts concerning tears" - was recently given a very successful performance by the City of Leeds Youth orchestra. City of Leeds Youth Music and the eight Music Centres (Horsforth, Guiseley, Rothwell, Wetherby, East Leeds, North Leeds, West Leeds and South Leeds) are part of the Leeds Music Support Service, a part of the Department of Education of Leeds City Council.

The Horsforth Music Centre (Susan Brooksbank - Head) is situated at Horsforth School in the north-west of the city. It is here that the horn class is held, and tuition is in the hands of Graham Phillips, a freelance music teacher, who studied horn with David Wise at Leeds Music College. Besides the horn beginner's class Graham runs a horn ensemble whose age range is from 13 to 70+. Repertoire covers the full gamut from the famous 'Green Books', through trio and quartet arrangements of Mozart and Handel, to original horn music by Gallay and others. Concerts are given periodically in the centre.

A slightly different venture is the Opera North Horn Club, which meets in Leeds Grand Theatre or at West Park Centre five or six times per year. As its title suggests, the club is run by the Opera North Horn section whose Principal, Bob Ashworth, is the Chairman. Membership is of all ages and professions; a recent meeting included a clergyman, a hospital consultant, a research scientist, a postman, a dry stone waller, a bank manager, several teachers and school students. Other members include a funeral director and several professional horn players, active and retired. Although the accent is on multi-horn ensemble playing, meetings have also included mini-recitals from the Opera North section and from guests including Mark Almond who, besides horn solos, has provided us with a trio from the National Youth Orchestra to perform the Brahms Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano. The club has its own website at: www.bobaton.co.uk.

The British half of the TransAtlantic Horn Quartet is having a busy start to the year. Michael Thompson performed the UK premiere of the Ligeti Horn Concerto with the London Sinfonietta at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on February 11, and a few days later Richard Watkins was the soloist in the UK premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s Campana in Aria. This was part of a concert given by the BBC Philharmonic in Studio 7, Manchester.

Richard is now scheduled to give the world premiere of Colin Matthew’s Horn Concerto on April 22 at the Royal Festival Hall. Esa-Pekka Salonen will conduct the Philharmonia. He has also given three performance of Matthew Taylor’s Concerto which he premiered last year with the Goldberg Ensemble.

Chris Swan, one the founders of the 'Young Cygnets', has invited teachers in the British Horn Society to contact this musical charity if they know of particularly gifted pupils in need of financial assistance. The emphasis is on those who might not otherwise be able to continue without such help. Ideally ‘Young Cygnets’ would like to start helping horn players as young as possible with the aim of assisting them right through their studies. The charity provides platforms on which students can perform, in addition to financial aid.

'Young Cygnets' was formed three years ago by a group of Midlands industrialists. Anyone interested in seeking their assistance should, in the first instance, contact Barbara Hall, 27 Grange Road, Bidford-on-Avon, Warwickshire B50 4BY. Tel: 01789 490531, e-mail: alcock@thornaby.fsbusiness.co.uk

Other Horn News pages: