How we spent our summer vacation
The 2011-2012 school year is already well underway at the Eastman School of Music. This is a particularly exciting time of year since we are welcoming several new freshmen and graduate students into the ESM Horn Studio. The first days of fall have many of us reminiscing about our summer activities, and we thought it would be fun to share how some of the ESM Horn Studio spent their summer vacations:
Ally Schuler spent her summer at home in Cincinnati. She played with the Cincinnati Horn Connection, a horn choir of student and professional hornists from the Cincinnati area. Ally made money baby sitting, dog sitting, and cutting grass. Much of her time was spent preparing for her senior recital which will be on October 26, at 7pm in Hatch Recital Hall.
Over the summer, Chelsea Nelson spent the majority of her time travelling for pleasure and learning opportunities. Most notably, she spent an enjoyable and intensive week at Kendall Betts Horn Camp honing her skills on the horn and spending time with friends. Aside from travelling, Chelsea worked at CVS Pharmacy, played in her brass quintet, and biked.
Freshman Chelsea Nelson and a friend at Kendall Betts Horn Camp in June 2011
In the summer of 2011, Caitlin Smith attended the New York Summer Music Festival in Oneonta, New York. Here she studied with Ilze Brink-Button and won the student recital solo competition. Caitlin also traveled to Detroit and Cape Cod. Below is a video of Caitlin performing the National Anthem with the NYSMF Brass Ensemble at the Oneonta Outlaws baseball game.
Caitlin performing with the NYSMF Brass Ensemble
Billy Bard spent most of his summer at home in Pinellas Park, Florida. He began the summer with his senior recital, which took place at his local church. On the program were Four Pieces for Horn and Piano by Glière, the full Hindemith Horn Sonata, and the last movement of the Brahms Horn Trio. He took a gig a few weeks later with a local semi-pro pops orchestra for a 4th of July park concert. Much of his summer was spent indoors hanging out and practicing his horn with the stereo cranked up loud, playing along with recordings. Billy spent the first week of August in Daytona, FL, for The 5th Annual Horn Ensemble Summer Workshop at Daytona Beach (headed by David Johnson, founder of the American Horn Quartet). While there, he took advantage of many ensemble opportunities, and played in a horn choir, a trio, and a quartet.
Senior Jon Dozois and DMA student Lauren Becker at the New York Summer Music Festival. Jon was a counselor and taught Music Theory and Lauren was the Horn Instructor.
During the summer, Claude Lumley spent much of his time practicing at his home in Texas. He had a few minor engagements with a small volunteer orchestra in San Antonio, Texas. When he was not practicing he was perfecting his Texan art of barbecuing.
Along with being a counselor at Donner Mine Music Camp and attending the International Horn Symposium in San Francisco, Kelly Suthers got to play Alpenhorn duets and trios with her friends this summer.
Kelly Suthers playing Alpenhorn duets
This summer, Lucy Olson spent two weeks at Kendall Betts Horn Camp, playing lots of excerpts. She also attended a brass chamber music workshop at New York University and was very excited to get to perform Ingolf Dahl’s Brass Sextet. While at home in New Jersey, Lucy worked at her town’s after-school childcare program.
Lauren Becker spent most of June in the White Mountains of New Hampshire working as a staff member at Kendall Betts Horn Camp. This was her ninth summer at KBHC and one of the highlights of camp this year was performing in a quintet with Professor Kurau and several other ESM alumni. Later in the summer, she taught horn at the third session of the New York Summer Music Festival in Oneonta, NY and enjoyed working with the horn students, coaching a brass quintet, and performing with the NYSMF Faculty Brass Quintet.
Professor Kurau with Lauren Becker and other staff members (and ESM Alumni) Allen Fogle, Juliann Welch, and JG Miller at Kendall Betts Horn Camp in June 2011
Emily Browne split her summer between being home in Pennsylvania and working as a Summer RA for the Music Horizons program in Rochester. At home she got the chance to spend time with her family and old friends, while in Rochester she got the opportunity to make new friends and explore the city.
Russell Rybicki spent the summer practicing and taking lessons in Rochester. He was fortunate enough to work as a summer RA for the Eastman Horizons program. He enjoyed working with Professor Kurau and working with all the potential Eastman students. There were so many learning experiences and he recommends anyone at Eastman spends at least one summer in the gorgeous Rochester weather.
This summer, sophomore Grace Shafer spent fine tuning both her horn playing in the orchestra and her food catering skills at her job at Dairy Queen. She played assistant in the Penn’s Woods Orchestra during June, and focused the rest of her summer on preparing for her End-of-Summer recital, on which she debuted her first public performance of the natural horn.
It sounds like it was a fun, busy, and productive summer for the ESM Horns. Welcome back to school everyone!
