Jen Montone - Toolbox, Tone and Teaching
Jen Montone talks with Sarah Willis in a live Horn Hangout from the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia. This Horn Hangout includes a performance by the Curtis horn class, as well as fascinating insights into Jen’s philosophy of playing and teaching.
Transcript
Auto-generated from the live stream, expect the occasional robot mishearing.
[Music] good morning everyone this is the life isn’t it welcome back to the horn hangouts I’m on a chaise longue or however you pronounce it if I pronounced it wrong sorry about that at the Curtis Institute of music with my horn hangout mark with some cushions with a microphone actually pack sticking into my back but never mind um
I am here in some room that I can’t pronounce ver a ver Oh nos ski I’ll just ask in a moment how to pronounce that at the Curtis Institute and today we have a very special LIVE horn hangout with the wonderful Jenn Montone who this is the reason you’re all watching I know principal horn of the Philadelphia
Orchestra and she is here this morning with her students from the Curtis Institute and we thought we’d start off with a bit of music because how better to start off a horn hangout then with a bit of music we know you’re watching from all over the world from Korea all around America Korea it’s now midnight or something hey mija isn’t it midnight we’ve got people all over
Gary Cindy Lewis Hadley you’re all over the States I want to know where you’re watching from and yeah talk amongst yourselves talk to us send your questions in for Jenn for everybody watching on Facebook Facebook we’re just trying to get you over to the to the live page so that you can ask your questions Facebook is great for for live-streaming but
I can’t see the questions I’ve got my iPad here and the questions I’ve got here are on on the live page on Sara Willis comm slash live so that’s the best place to get your questions in if you write questions on Facebook Jenn we’ll have a look at them afterwards and she’ll answer them all weren’t you Jenn so for now
I’m going to lie back even even further and I introduced to you Jenn Montone and the Curtis horns [Music] [Applause] great I introduced you to alter them here on I got your names your inner in the R in the row you will be seeing them a little bit later on but to the Curtis ones and Jen thank you very much guys that was wonderful there’s applause coming in from all over the world so you take a seat back here we’ll get chit
I mean that’s just an amazing way to start the day don’t you think what a fantastic way to start the series welcome where should we put your horn where should I put your horn may I introduce the wonderful Jen one tone I would like to hear some applause from all over the world thank you and in the room is your microphone on do we have everything we need we are just waiting for handsome tim is here as well everybody would you just come in and say hello to this
I am very very happy and proud to say that I had visitor from Melbourne came all the way over what time is it in Melbourne I think is about 2 a.m. and you you arrived before they left yeah that’s the way I like to travel right okay well thank you don’t fall asleep and we have Devon Manning the chat which is great
Jen’s microphone is on he might have to fiddle around in your army right talk amongst yourselves Tim is about to delve down the back of Jen’s trousers so I’ll just carry on here I’m just gonna say a big hello to everybody watching Andrew Bain is watching hello Andrew in sunny California well it it wasn’t actually very sunny this last week
I spent with Andrew Bain and his family and his horn Curtis horns at Curtis horns colburn horns and it was freezing in LA that’s really quite average so Andrews watching Luke 4f4 and Patrick is watching Stephen R says greetings from Toronto Fred in Florida Eric in Philly Eric Philly either his name is Eric Philly or he isn’t
Philly Ryan Hart in Germany ty Aloha Hawaii some people watching in Hawaii this doesn’t make you feel any less excited but this is really a traum time the entire Tron time horn class is watching in very snowy gary qu and LA oh my goodness you’ve created this beautiful with Tim but they are watching because of you thank you so this is great
Tim how are we doing with the setup we’re doing perfectly can we can we lounge or or are we in the shot if we lounge Bravo it’s a little bit stress eat ooh it’s 10 o’clock on a Sunday morning and I just admire your focus and your horn playing and your personality I’ve never started a horn hangout so relax because just before we went live you what what did we do what did you do that’s is this a ritual of yours well well
Jack actually led us through a little breathing gym thing in the other room right before we started and yeah the breathing was a breathing Jim you know sample a fan type of you know just a tiny little capsule of what they do on their video and their book breathing Jim is for people that don’t know this we have we have three cameras set up here
Tim how we doing is that Jen’s camera that’s my camera right behind is Victoria and then this is our main one so can you just let us quickly know what that is and maybe one of you can put the the the link to it in the chat that would be amazing yeah breathing Jim is a fabulous book and video resource you can find it kind of anywhere
Amazon for sure yeah I worked with Sam play feeling a little bit when I was in high school up at Tanglewood and he sort of started me thinking about how much just being able to count on the air and being able to always find you know like the the comfort of knowing that there will always be air in your body and you can always use it towards what you want the air is our best friend it really is but air is the first thing we all forget to to do
Tim’s running around out of the cave Aaron rhythm I mean yeah why is that we’ll get to that just a few more hellos Ken Fisher is watching in Ann Arbor good morning Ken Victoria your mom is watching Melissa cuckoo Hawaiian tour Taiwan and Prichard in sunny Florida young horn a young Hornets we’re young horns Indiana Cindy Williams been in
Louisville Kentucky Betsy Bobo is just said great opening Curtis horns really we love this we absolutely adore the horn hangouts and how global it gets so keep writing in and letting us know are we doing are we doing okay keep writing in and let us know where you’re watching from that would be absolutely great if you’re watching on
Facebook we’d love you to put your questions in the live page chat because I can’t I haven’t got Facebook here it’s too distracting because on Facebook I can’t seem to work out how to see the chat without seeing everyone who joins and and there’s a lot of people watching so it gets very very busy on Facebook so or like wapis kevin is watching in
Colombia sito’s Birmingham England Poland I tell you Devon is put in the the link to breathing gym so let’s get back to horn you do a lot of preparation you you have a tool box have a tool bags yes I’m having a tool bar I love that idea and I have just experienced live your tool box as something and you take breathing gym out of your tool box before you before you play do yeah breathing gym is wonderful
I we did a couple of things right before we started there’s a ten toes meditation that I learned from Julie Landsman my teacher and I sometimes extended I have I have a version on my website which has sort of a tree pose part of it where you lift up your toe and then you put it lift up your toe and then you exhale it down into the ground and then you as you do that you imagine a tree root growing into the ground and then the next toe and then it goes deeper is it a quick once grounded is it a quick one to do
Sure we all can we all do it Nickolas but yeah can we all do it okay okay everybody we’re going to be doing a at the tree root yeah toe what’s it called that’s ten toes ten ten I turn it into a tree a tree root exercise is up already so we can do it with will do with both big toes lift them up and inhale and then exhale them into the ground and imagine a tree root growing and going into the ground you can also imagine your sits bones sort of grounded into your chair as an extension or
Shaye’s long Jason both your second toe is up and as you inhale you can imagine the the branches of your tree going into the into the air and then the tree second toe tree growing down into the ground farther and it finds some water at the water table their toes up you imagine the Sun and the sun is shining on your tree branches and the leaves start to grow and then down into the ground exhale and your tree roots start to sort of branch out also and fingerstyle start to seep through the ground extending your stability and your groundedness fourth toes you open your whole
Chest your whole face your whole body to the openness of the Sun and it’s nourishment and then ground it down into the ground your stable secure connected fifth toes breathe deep taking the air take in the warmth push down into the sits bones push down into the ground and the treat where it’s 6:10 open your eyes hello now this is great because you can do this maybe in bars rest you don’t wanna really shut your eyes a lot on stage but you can do this if you’re getting a little little sort of anxious or preoccupied or just even you know we have these two sides
Of our brain one that is doing what it’s learned and the other side which is panicking and this is this is my life goal is to shut this side of my brain off I love that expression life goal because that’s what I feel like this has become for me also is like being able to manage those two powers and forces within me and use them for good rather than for ill is there anything good about this panicky side
I think it’s enthusiasm I think if we’re feeling tired or down I think that’s the part of us that cares deeply I’m trying really hard not to attack it or be angry at it for existing I think it’s a reflection of my caring about it and wanting like I’m I’ve got all this big personality side of me that like wants you know like wants to grow wants to strive wants to you know like do things and improve and that’s a joyful thing that’s a that’s what the you know that’s fantastic because an easy side is the negative mirroring of that but it is a good
Power and I think it’s worthwhile so that’s a wonderful thing you say because and this is loop so in banging the microphone this is a problem of mine as well as probably a lot of people watching we we react negatively when we notice negative things happening it’s like don’t think of the elephant don’t think of the elephant of their body don’t think of an elephant everybody watching the horn hang on
I think even elephant so if this is carrying on or which way does it come which is which brain is it left or right they’re disturbing one the right brain you tell us something a child I I reacted oh no ash don’t be quiet but if we can maybe embrace that and say oh here comes the creative side trying to tell me that right that you know things are a little bit uh hairy yeah well in the moment what
I like to do with that is I try to get myself down energy before I start something I like this one that I showed you the tree tree roots one and then I also have like a hula hoop one which um like Hillary hi it’s from Don Greene yeah but she posted something recently yeah she was playing the violin and hula hooping my gosh that’s amazing you know what
I should have brought a hula hoop we should have tried that yeah that’s a Don green one and maybe she does it too but yeah it turns into a ring of fire and then a ball of fire and then it kind of goes up your spine and then out your eyes and sort of power so the tree root one is for when
I need to calm down the other one is just a focus power and concentration and just like focus into a point and I think that attaches to a meditation practice which I always recommend and I find it immensely helpful do you have a special meditation practice I I did a Ayurvedic retreat you know a yogi thing and
I I discovered I think I’m the worst meditator in which the online viewers probably saw because I was just now as I was I had a quick look around the room to make sure everything’s but if you’re really in the space you don’t care about what’s going on around you do you have an app do you know um
I meant anything you can find I mean I headspace is helpful that’s a really good basic I like meta meditations which are loving-kindness meditations because I tend to feel like I play better from a generous heart rather than a fearful heart so it helps me to transition my brain into that so and anything you find online generally will be good but in terms of like using the using the ah in the moment
I find that either if I ride the energy wave if I convert like my crazy wild thinking into like momentum like body rhythm and energetic like you know like forceful you know gusto then that’s one way and that’s elector that’s great or if I am playing something that’s lyrical and I’m starting to get crazy brains then I’ll put it into that crazy frame
I’ll be like I’m gonna phrased here and I’m gonna do me a new window and then I’m gonna you know go do this and then send off that top and then I’m gonna make sure to do that color and that harmony change that’s for the pestis room yeah nobody in are you fine the orchestra you tell yourself what you’re gonna do it keeps it alive for me and it shuts off then the pan their ass cuz then you’re just you’re sculpting and you’re creating and that means every concert is slightly different and then you’re in this creative brain you know kind of using the momentum
That the crazy brain gives you is that this likes it this is fun when did you start realizing that you needed something extra apart from scales and arpeggios and and long notes when did when did when did you think when did you I remember vividly the moment I realized horn plane was actually quite scary I remember the knees shaking and
I remember things seeing the people my mouth was dry and I didn’t know what was happening to me I thought what is this and I remember asking for a chair and having to sit down and it was at school and and yeah and then I did it for a long time I just thought that was it before
I realize okay you have to do something about this window when did ya for me it was definitely college I think in high school I look back on that and I’m like wow I was just fearless I just didn’t know right oh it kicks in at different times I think some people it actually doesn’t really kick in like a lot of people are totally chilled out
I mean Jeff Lang my colleague he’s just so calm about it’s one chance I think I saw I think I’m sorry watch it’s incredible but yeah I mean I think it’s great so I yeah for me Julie Landsman at Julliard she had us work with John Green and that was wonderful and it just started my awareness of like oh there’s books out there there’s
Sopranos a horn hangout with Don green linked to horn hang out please Devin with with Don Green actually Devin who’s been wonderful he’s been helping he’s from Canada he’s been helping us out with our website so he’s online if you guys have any questions which I don’t get to he’s asked how much meditation do you do a day could
I just do a couple of minutes I do five minutes thank goodness you said that the Yogi’s do like to get ice for under two hours I should do more like I’ll absolutely say aye it’s so beneficial that whenever I have something big coming up and you know I know that I’m starting to get nervous about it
I will increase what I do both yoga and meditation wise but it’s sort of yeah I generally I chastise myself in that I know if I had a bigger practice of yoga and meditation and everything on the mental side of things I probably wouldn’t freak out and then have to medicate as needed which I feel like I do so that’s that’s my goal lately so yoga is in your toolbox as well yes yeah your mama your mama took two young people speaking of moms my mum’s watching can we say hello to my mom hello mom she’s very she’s very loyal she’s always on the phone
Hangers I’m moms are so it’s so important yes great well if Jen’s mom is watching please write in and say hello so yoga is in your your - how do you manage I mean you can’t sit and meditate with your two boys running around or can you know I I can lock whatever door of whatever room I’m in right and then you do get some banging but that’s also good no
I I just I find time I meditate at work and then I do do yoga in front of my children we do it together which is really yeah they’re learning it in preschool and do you have any particular yoga moves away I’m not gonna make you do them Erik - Williger made me lie down on the floor and the
Hangout I was wearing this short skirt yeah right oh I mean he was saying now we relax and all I could think was the horn hangout audience can see up my skirt so so but I found some there’s some ones like when you when you sit with your legs out and then stretching over we’re supposed to be able to touch your toes but who can do that and that’s supposed to really relax all the nervous system and in your back and everywhere that’s quite a good one for breathing yes definitely yeah
I like anything I mean obviously all of yoga is like either concave or convex so III just alternate between those two and I do all of my yoga at home I’ve done a lot of classes at but but I haven’t lately and but yeah they my students know my favorites um generally with me I tend to go shoulder in and kind of clench like it’s like audition mode audition mode this is the audition mode until we start and there we go ah yes so
I try my balance of concave and convex is weighted towards the shoulders back opening up the shoulder blades and free open chest kind of things I tend to do a lot of those yeah Ernie is watching hello from Philadelphia humming hello Ernie he’s probably in the building okay there any if you’re nearby come in you’re welcome you’re welcome
Tim I wonder can you swing over and just show our audience today can you manage that hey you guys wait because I want to just just when you hear people laughing these are who you’re seeing they’re all over here that’s right there you go say hi we go in a tiny room yeah but seriously what’s the name of this house key rehearsal yes
Curtis has these beautiful old you know it’s wearing the old building of Curtis and they have these beautiful rooms that are dedicated to some of the performers and teachers at the school so there’s a tab yuto room that’s upstairs but it gets a worse internet connection so that’s why I always try to teach interview toe because a big a big thing means to
Curtis for letting us do this and also to Matt who came in this morning at 9 o’clock and helped us with all the connections so I’m very very glad Curtis is joining the live streaming world and soon there’ll be a gen Montone room I hope not before there’s amazing Jones room I’m guessing well ok let’s get back we’ve so wit got people everywhere
Cindy from Taipei hi Cindy dr. Helen is watching from London Howard pink in Nashville Chelsey from Atlanta says shout out to max and Felix Maksim I joined us hey Ernie Ernie is fourth horn in but just want to come a wave in the camera and he just come come and say hi I know you didn’t expect that did you
Ernie is fourth Warren yes Orchestra meet you wave there you go yeah it’s so nice when colleagues come you want to go enjoying the right there you go okay I likes have a very busy weekend I know that you came especially as low horn low horn power um we’re in Philadelphia yes and I’ve been here once long time ago and we stayed right next to the
Liberty Bell but a lot of people haven’t been to Philadelphia before and Victoria you’re Victoria not Knudson is that right so do you say Knutson in Germany they take nods but they say Knutson she went off and made a tiny little film about where we are today and we’d like to show you that Tim [Music] hello everybody welcome to
Sara’s horn hangouts in Philadelphia Pennsylvania standing in for the Independence Hall a great historical site of Philadelphia and just hoping to wish Jan and Sarah and everybody watching a wonderful horn hangout great you haven’t even seen it yet actually we will show you after thanks so much to Victoria and also to Andrew who helped made that and make make it so yeah a
Jack sorry Andrew jacquard I’m good Andrew I made a jack okay I’ve got got it Jack I’m sorry jack apologies well Jack isn’t one of them so let’s carry on we’ve got some questions coming in and and what sue me from Jacques just join in I tell you we are so global today hardly would like to know how much taboo toad is taboo tall capital does
Jen incorporate in her playing and her teaching because Tabata explain who Tabata is for the people okay no yeah so one of the things I love about Philly and the Philly Orchestra and the way it aligns with Kurtis is that there’s this history and tradition of both string playing and wind and brass playing and taboo tow was the kind of granddaddy of the
Philly Orchestra wind style and so he would have been the beginning of the 1900s and was principal oboe in the Philly Orchestra and then John Delancey was after him who got Strauss to write the second oboe concerto which is so the sister piece tourist routes to so if you ever want a creative way to learn Strauss to you can listen to the stars oboe concerto and the way that it’s kind of it’s a run-on sentence
II in the same way in a way they phrase you can even play the second moment on your horn but uh and then we could arrange that we could arrange the oboe concerto for the next tour and hang out for me for six horns yeah that’s it you got it okay and Dick Woodhams who’s my colleague who just retired he has a beautiful recording of the
Strauss oboe concerto as does your principal stuff yeah I love but um but the interesting thing about oboe is that I find that they’re so colorful and so creative and so nuanced so I always tend to look to oboes for the creativity of their phrasing and they’re never really seeming to be all that worried about just the notes and that they do a lot of like micro phrasing and then also the beautiful big lines so
I do love the tabut oh and he has a numbering of phrasing and there’s a CD called t-butyl essence where he just kind of talks for a while but in there are his ideas on phrasing which I love which are kind of about putting attaching numbers to the the way where you are in the line so that you’re making sure that you’re actually sculpting the way you want so it’s not just there’s a beginning and there’s the top of the phrase but there’s the you know there’s the way you get there and depending on what the line looks like you can go straight there or
You can go up above it or you can kind of do it later you know whether it’s a more of a wave or more than even crescendo and then same with nuances and the harmony and push and release and just all the like fun little musical things we can bring you know he has you sort of look at it at numbers and also it’s helpful with students who don’t like to think in that way but want to just have you tell them where to phrase to you can actually just be like just you know it’s like 1 2 3 you know 1 2 3 4
2 3 1 1 and it helps them to feel confident about like yes I’m a musical soul I can phrase I can sound beautiful it gives us like a blueprint to follow when we’re not sure we’re not feeling confident so I like it for both ways what I’m loving hearing about your teaching is that all these different facets you include you teach the person not just the horn player no it really things like that you have your tool box with the meditation and and you and and you take from other instruments which i think is so important opera singers over maybe any watching and and
And and that that is such an important thing and I tell students that they have to go out and and look at paintings and go to jazz and eat good food and it’s it’s it seems to be very important to you yes I love that yeah it’s like art and the way that like I I always love to equate like brush strokes with like articulation yeah so it’s like just like if it’s a blob then it’s a push and if it’s a whoosh you know then it’s a light wispy kind of brush stroke so yeah
I think anything that’s creative and keeps us feeling like we’re we’re constantly growing and creating and doing something interesting with our minds I think is it’s the name of the game with a career that you want to go on first for your life I just hey Shelly we’ve got all sorts of visitors here in the room well come and say hi another member of the
Philly horn section Shelly that they come in Shelly everybody I’m honored yes what is it your your utility is the assistant and utility so you play you play every you have to play everything that’s in Shelly’s a Curtiss graduate we have a couple of them in our section thank you for coming ok well join the Philly ranks we’re waiting for the others where are all the others
I had a question yes Ben from Louisville Kentucky Louisville Louisville Louisville speaking of Louis Jenna is watching with her dog Louie in the middle of a snowstorm in Seattle so good morning Jenna what sort of playing opportunities would a student at Curtis have outside of the school in Philadelphia asking as a player auditioning there in March so what are your student what are your students where do they play do they get to play
X with the orchestra sometime no that’s not easy yeah soon yeah we have sub-list auditions for the orchestra we’ve sort of gone that direction lately it used to be actually a very strong connection between Curtis and the Philly orchestra in that regard Dan Williams I think was a student here when Mason Jones he at Dan is our second horn when
I guess maybe one section Tim somewhere can you show everybody who were who were talking about yeah I think it was or it must have a Normandy asked Mason if he had any great horn students that could you know come an audition for him and it was that old school thing of like Mason said yes I do
I have this young man and so he came and did a private audition in his dressing room and you know that kind of thank you so the world has become very audition centered these days so not as much but Curtis has Philly has a ton of regional orchestras and a lot of local gigs so it’s actually out of the
US cities that I’ve lived in I think it’s one of the best I’d say in terms of finding freelance New York isn’t far either exactly you can go to New York for gigs and DC and Baltimore and then yeah well you just have a lot of regional orchestras it seems like this city really values classical music and it’s got this really warm and nice historic you know kind of tradition of it and then also so the audiences are there so a lot of them
I think playing like the local regional orchestras Oh your Orchestra Philadelphia Orchestra Simon Rattle told me it was one it’s one of his favorite orchestras in the world he just loves this tradition we love either Heiner who doesn’t he’s just fantastic I know but he loves conducting here and he said just to listen to this string sound it’s just so there’s so much tradition in your
Orchestra yeah somebody I think it might have been oh gosh it was one of the earlier conductors might have been stokowski said it’s that the sound of the string section in Philly is like a diamond wrapped in velvet and it’s interesting because it’s like I I just love the idea of having like a sound for an orchestra like historically a lot of
Berkshire’s have their style and their tradition and their sound and then it’s just me to even think of like a diamond wrapped in velvet what would that even sound like so yeah I like that idea making warm but really how does your section I think next time I come we’ll do a Philly horn section Philly horn section hang out tell us just quickly how your horn section works because you you are you are six we have six yeah yes bizarrely enough we couldn’t find any pictures that had all six of us but only six of us so we need to get on that we have
One with Julie in it with Jim Leyland’s yeah it’s so we often take pictures when we have an eighth horn piece and then we have nine and we have you know all of these wonderful subs from other orchestras it’s become a tradition that horn section photos after big events after big after like Jake for yeah Jeff Lang and
I our principal and associate respectively all right me and Jeff and then Shelley is assisting utility and then we’ve got down on second Jeff Christian on third and Ernie’s new on fourth before is Denise Tryon so yeah that’s our section and it’s it’s I think we’re doing born hang out next time we come great good and we’ve got
Marianna watching Oh Mariana I know Mariana Mariana are you wearing your horn hangout t-shirt from Mexico she yeah and she’s watching she’s can finally watch live she says hi evan Broadwell says i have a feeling a lot of American horn players use Gaia cannot star horns more than in Europe where they use mercy Alex horns is there a special reason availability tradition sound ideal or other what did you play on today everyone we need we need the nerdy question mouthpiece and horn ok well so this is a route so frightened
Eve Eric’s husband annual route makes these gorgeous horns that you probably all know of so yeah I grew up in Northern Virginia right outside of Washington DC went to Julliard so I bought an 8d when I moved to Julliard and started studying with Julie and I think the style of when playing that I had always heard was a lot of the 8d and kind of like
Philly New York Cleveland type of stuff and then once I got there actually I found it really interesting just listening to more recordings of other orchestras and I found it interesting how like the Boston Chicago you know I’m like San Francisco that it’s like there was another style and then there was a European style and then there were sort of
Vienna I was like oh there’s a lot of ways to skin this cat and it’s just fascinating with eyes peeled I’m just glad you haven’t sworn yet because I’ve heard an interview where they they complimented you swearing in your one of your interviews but it’s early in the morning and it’s Sunday yes anyway skinning skinning your cat
I mean your cat nap no but I just I love that there’s so many traditions yeah I don’t think there are as many Alexander players in the US as there are in Europe yet but yeah I think it’s interesting that the way that the trends go but I mean I own an Alexander with your section president no actually
I actually played it for quite a while when I was coming back from my back injury it was very very helpful because it just speaks a little quicker and it doesn’t quote use quite as much of the like huge that my rep generally requires so I did use it as a as a nice and also the variety and the color and the like the woodwind playing so
I I find it interesting to switch horns and see what brings out what in your own playing and it’s like I love being able to play an 8d and play an Alex and play a rock and sort of have it be there’s different ways there’s different composers that I think you torn works great for and they’re different to use the same mouth base on with every horn here comes the nerdy questions we always have to have mouth these questions pretty good very clean
I’ve had that since 96 there’s no breakfast down there but it’s 96 what is it yes Jimmy chambers sort of like a jardin le see 10 ish but it was a mouthpiece that Jimmy chambers gave his Juilliard students when he was teaching there so it’s um Julianne Landsman now has a whole line of them that are in different like they like that like can you buy is there is there a gem on tone one or is that is that just a standard answer makes them oh yeah yeah
Houser makes them how is there’s a mouthpiece maker in Philly area so and then I have a Lawson room so yeah I haven’t changed my mouthpiece at all I know I never a comfort and then the other is the exploration of it but you use the same mouthpiece on all your horns you don’t change - oh no
I did I did change to an Alex mouthpiece for my when i play on the Alex ok because otherwise it sounds very hollow it doesn’t work the American mouthpieces don’t work that great on Alex Juanes it is there are always exceptions but for some reason I I find if it if it if there’s a little little cup yeah sort of a little rounding in the mouthpiece it works better on an
Alex and a straight down but solutely you know I’m not a mouthpiece experts people say oh wow you know can you tell me this is this 3/4 of a millimeter better in the bore and I might if it sounds good use it speaking of Juilliard and Julie I have something for you I’m gonna show it to you on my iPhone and
Tim’s gonna show it to the live viewers because I can’t we can’t show you both at the same time but Tim are you ready to go hang on I’ve got it here and that’s let’s yeah let’s just get it in their society northeast workshop [Music] there you go isn’t that nice Julie and Michelle and the students there at some northeast or
Northwest what is it north and east workshop northeastern workshop opening up and anybody watching secretly on their phone in the Northeast horn workshop we’d like to know I was going to be there but no I’m here today so so we have Kylie white saying Jen Sarah and Victoria watching for my hotel in Los Angeles and excited to audition for
Curtis in March all the people that are watching a hangout I hope they get a nice home advantage here miwa-san is watching from Tokyo so hollow to me was son really this is quite incredible so I have a nice question from Stefan Stefan door no I don’t think so but you never know how do you see the future of classical musician classical music don’t you love these big questions we musicians reach just a very small percent of the young people
I’m working on it I’m working on it the public is getting unfortunately older and older the next generation is missing I’m working on it this is why we’re here what what do you think is necessary for us to do guessing what what you’re doing what I think the the new generation of students and professionals who are creative enough to branch out of what we were taught into doing things that we are learning about in the world
I think is the future of it I think computer and everything media related is probably the way to reach anyone with any topic since Assad like this is what this is how you see the concert hall that the way that the Met does their broadcasts and the movie theaters I think anything in that direction I know the
Philadelphia Orchestra we had some financial troubles a number of years ago and we kind of admit that when we’re drunk yes but we’ve my lawyer so of course it’s a reality of you know of American orchestras anyway but we’ve been crying our way out of it and I think it has to do with both keeping the standard very high for ourselves artistically and musically and believing in the art form as a a beautiful you know expression of humanity and then also being as open-minded and creative and moving forward with you know collaborations and creative ways to get ourselves out there and you know sort of
Just being incredibly flexible both in education and in media and in big orchestras and on all levels I think so it’s it’s when we start talking about the power of music and how it inspires and that you young people sometimes go back on their phones right so it is a big challenge you find stuff on things that they can look at on their phones yeah there there’s all sorts of people in our home community doing all sorts of stuff one of our viewers
F horn Patrick has a great YouTube channel which you know a lot of people are great fans of and and and I do the craziest things I can find on the horn as well there’s a lot of great stuff going on out there yeah but it’s still nothing can replace a live concert yeah and that’s our goal is to get people into the concert hall yeah well and
I think there’s like obviously music is enjoyed in every venue and in every situation so right we’re not going to lose the concert hall and the live and the traditional you know what we’ve all grown up loving but we also you’re right there’s a small group of people that love that and then there’s probably a lot of people that would love the things that we bring in a more normal modern format yeah so yeah
I think I love that question thank you so much that one what I’d like to know from all you watching is what would you suggest Jen gets a copy of this chat afterwards and and this will be up with her hangout so we’d love to know what you would suggest if you guys have any ideas for cool hangouts or or how you would put cool stuff in to enter into our teaching you know we’re old fogies here we’re we’re old ladies
I want that I want the people to write the contradictions immediately but one thing I think that’s important on this whole topic is that in your educational years when you’re between 15 and 30 whatever like when you’re in college and in high school I think like finding your confidence about your music ideas and also your creative like what is our field going to do ideas
I think that’s hugely important and it’s like like believe that your ideas are worth something and that if you pursue them they’ll become something beautiful like that’s a big thing for us to like and also believe I’m at the passion you have for classical music because sometimes with all the practice we do with all the rushing around all the
Facebook and Instagram and snapchat and everything else we do the passion for our music gets a little bit doesn’t get lost it’s always in there but it gets a little bit hidden and forgotten in all this and that’s why it’s so hard in an audition to pull it out of the bag because in an audition we’re not interested in whether someone’s alive a very active on social media or how much practice they’ve done we’re interested in hearing that person bring music whether it’s a orchestral excerpts or dur or you know or
Mozart and that’s where we’ve got to believe in the passion and that’s what I try and communicate all the time whether you’re talking or whether you’re playing that passion there has to be yeah don’t lose it don’t forget it well yeah it’s something if you’re doing this either as a you know as a student and amateur professional whatever level you play the
French horn at or anything else you obviously care about it so you can always dig that out when you’re feeling self-critical and perfectionistic about things it’s like we all get very you know worried about what we’re not what we don’t think we’re good at but we we do all have that passion so if you if you do sort of rely on that and find it again it’s like
I feel like the gift of what we can give is important to remember so a message from handsome Tim has just come in saying gorgeous and camera and in person thank you happy to we’re so lucky to have Tim here from Melbourne really I can’t tell you how at peace I am when he is here running the live streams because it actually he set it all up so it’s thanks to him you aren’t all says and ray in in
London thank you and Ray for that alex is watching Alex Jimbo V Terry is watching in Puerto Rico and centre Brazos we’ve got that Anthony in Naples Italy not Naples Florida Naples Italy says hi this is really I’m sorry I could go on for ages and ages so there’s another horn question we can ask from you e
I was recently able to watch the Berlin Philharmonic woodwind quintet live and was blown away by fergus’s soft playing what are your tips for pianists Mele I warned you was going to be very random it’s not the normal interview that you just have your list of questions and then you run with it it goes but all these things are going into coming out of
Jen’s toolbox right right well I’m always constantly impressed when the when performers can bring out the extremes of their you know of the range so I feel like that’s something I’m always working on and playing with Yorkshire was actually a fabulous example of how soft and how blinded things can be I think with soft we generally we need to feel comfortable that it’s going to respond so anything that’s that’s always useful on stage yeah anything in your warm-up that you can sort of reassure yourself that even without a ton of air you’ve got the response there so a little bit about peace buzzing a little
Bit of maybe soft noodle flexibility exercises is helpful noodle exercises explain noodle people yeah anything like that it’s sort of or [Music] everything getting the mental buzz going yeah like a soft soft buzzing soft air attack so that you feel it you want to be able to almost taste it that it’s like okay that’s right there there’s this tiny little area and it’s gonna buzz and that’s gonna be the vibration and that’s gonna be
I can and I and I can rely on that being there and then in the moment with soft attacks I tend to if it’s something that I have to pick off something high and soft I’ll do a lot of subdivision I’ll look at whoever’s playing right before it and I’ll hear their line so I’m kind of jumping on there moving train so it’s sort of it’s already existing and then
I subdivide in it and and then i cue myself in you know so it’s kind of cure yourself in with an it with an air attack so with your air or with your time yeah I’ve read in time a lot anyway but especially on soft attacks I’ll be like yeah so I would’ve thought that note I know right
I always find that when I’m teaching I can’t breathe subdivide at the same time so I’m hoping they fill in the dots man but um yeah so something I find that time is very reliable feeling like the buzz is there was there is reliable and then connecting ourselves to others like not feeling isolated and alone but feeling like
I’m you know I’m part of this beautiful line the oboz gonna hand me this line or the clarinets gonna I’m gonna be under them so here I’ll breathe with them and just try to float my line underneath them so that’s a wonderful piece of advice because how often do we feel alone on the stage even even as they call us to tea shrine it means one of the masses you know even as as a for thorn or a thorn or some it can be the loneliest place in the world if you’re not feeling great but keeping you what you say about keeping your ears open
That’s very important to you well and it makes it that chamber music which always feels so alive and creative and personal then you can create small chamber music within you know any ensemble setting that you’re doing but yes also from a mental standpoint I like it because it’s like either when we’re playing we’re they’re giving a gift of you know love or beauty or excitement to an audience person and you can imagine a certain person who might be experiencing pain or you know like depression or whatever and you can imagine playing for them and trying to have bright in their lives but you can also
Then connect in a friend way and as if you’re having a conversation with someone and then it does kind of help us not feel isolated and therefore scared like the isolation turns into fear or self consciousness but collectiveness and connectivity helps you feel happy more fun how can we fight against that feeling of you know what it’s like you come out on stage you’re feeling absolute great you look by mistake in the audience
I try not to do that and also act we have them sitting right behind us in relay you see one person who just completely freaks you out for some reason a student a friend someone you know how can we fight against that do you know you know what I’m talking about yeah well again with the tool box
I think for me I have I have two that I like and I develop them in college with Don green and one is like a locker on the side of the stage where I throw unhelpful thoughts and then I have mocha a locker like in a moment like it’s light blue after the thoughts go in it then it slams shut like as if someone as if
I said who slams it useless I mentally slant ELISA yes and then bad like you know crack notes I empty them with my slide and you know so sometimes I’ve been told and solo performances like why are you like [Applause] this today out man you know or sometimes just even you know breathing out you know like blowing the person out of the room and then breathing in the space you know space of whatever freedom and then
I have a little a mental rocketship that goes around me that’s protective so I kind of have a bunch of different like little imageries that help me feel like I’m in control of my mind and then I find if I get going then you start connecting to them like what you’re playing and that it’s fun and it’s physical and you’re with people so
I feel like I just have to get myself over the hump a lot and then get myself in the door and then I’m in there playing and doing what’s you know what’s really cool can I come and study with you if I can city with you I’m so inspired by this this is really incredible really okay for every one of you all of you watching especially on
Facebook is it still as a facebook stream it streams are going live and people are probably chatting in the Facebook life if people have you watching at people who view so my German comes back at this time in the morning I’ve been in LA for a week so it’s still very early it feels very early for those of you watching on
Facebook if you could if you want to ask questions pop over to the live page on my website because that’s where I’ve got this nice little iPad with all the questions coming in really great questions otherwise you can just write hi and Jen will go on this chat later I will make you go on the chat another thing we would love especially all of you with these wonderful t-shirts because
I know a lot of you have them all around the world and they are a great way to support the horn hangouts because as you know we supported all ourselves except Alexander is helping us with this one computer Alexander the horn makers even though Jen’s got a Ralph my Alexander’s up in the corner so thank you very much to
Alexander’s helping that for all of you wearing a t-shirt especially but any of you we would love a selfie of where you’re watching from keep it clean but we have some great loyal viewers who send ourselves you can post them either on Twitter or on instagram hashtag horn hangout put them in the chat on facebook we’d love to see them later on so we’ll be doing some selfies later on as well so wherever you’re watching from great great great back to everyone who’s watching um
Anthony smiles asked are there any pieces in the orchestra that you don’t look forward to I think I I know what you means they’re so you just think oh you gotta play him it’s your job but there’s a couple I think oh it means I’ve got to work a lot harder right coming up to it I used to really not like methane and
Berlioz Missy yeah how do you say that word right no not not too much what I what I find challenging with Orchestra once you’ve been in a particular extra for a long time or to spend in the field for a long time is trying to make the standard things feel fresh so actually unique to get our music director he recently had lucky to have him
I really love you know he’s in he’s in Berlin this week right and he sent me a text saying looking forward to to seeing you this week and I sent him a picture from the plane of landing in Philly but he he recently had our library just put all blank parts because I think the idea of how to re-envision a piece after you’ve done in a million times it’s helpful not to always have your same assistant markings and your same crescendos and your saying whatever somebody else is if you’ve metal parts out don’t you hate that when people have written in pencil really untidily and
If they spend half the rehearsal rubbing it out the only ones that are distracting for me as different fingerings Jeff and I have like like he puts his fingerings on top and I put my fingers on bottom so we just stay on our own line so that I don’t start like stealing his fingerings because he has a triple so then
I’d be completely flat totally wrong notes but um no I think yeah it is it is harder like to play Beethoven seven over and over again and try to think of it a little bit differently and favorite pieces spots oh I like I love Mahler that’s my all of my favorites are Mahler Strauss and maybe Brahms other
Brahms is hard but yes Strauss is hard to mother is hard to hard yeah I’m impressed um ty has been asking a few times he wants to know about the Caruso method do you teach the Caruso method at Curtis I do I lightly teach the courser method that’s a very important word lightly yeah I Russo is an incredible method as are a lot of the basic basics methods that we use as horn players so
I always feel a little self-conscious because I feel like it’s a third hand and it’s I actually prefer to send my students to Julie’s Julie landsman’s Caruso videos because she at least studied with him so I think her way of doing them is a little bit more you know direct I think the basics of the Caruso method is simplifying down your brain into just calm alpha states where you’re just developing like air and time blow and rhythm so it’s like just a very simple way to start your day and then you build a foundation which then you can rely on when you’re playing and it
Helps sort of solidify a lot of a lot of the problems that we have so if you have a Caruso warmup or a core so ask you know if you basically do any of your basics and warm up things in a you get yourself to a really simple mental state and then just really rely on the subdivision the blow and not trying to correct and also not be thinking about you know your boyfriend or your you know it’s like your coffee but you know it’s like trying to like do your basics in a mindful way then they’ll stick better so
I do teach it and kind of in I teach the actual exercises but I’m more try to you know sort of make a point of like it’s developing the foundation and it’s connecting the mind to the body because a criticism of the caruso method is that it can really actually damage people if they take it too seriously yes and if you if you do any of these
I mean like the singer Booker and it stamp anything if you do the entire warm-up and if you do the entire one every single day no matter what you have to play later that day then over a long period of time you’ll end up with wear and tear and especially if you’re doing it without concentrating on taking a deep breath or using your stomach for support or keep your air spinning through your tongue if you do it and then have bad habits while you do it you’re going to be playing on your teeth and you’re gonna toast yourself and then they later you’ll they’ll be
Like oh that stupid warm-up was you know was ridiculous and I never should have done that it’s like well or you could have stopped at haiji because you don’t need to go all the way up to the sea every single time you know 17 times and then really in the exercise yeah I do my I do everything that’s the
I and hi basics I do it later in the day when my body is actually breathing well and stretched out and so that I don’t do that speaking of your beautiful body I don’t want to get into this now because we actually don’t have much time left which is tragic because I have to do a master class with these wonderful people so we have to we have to get this up if you guys have some more questions write them in and maybe you have time on the train or something to go into the chat and answer them for them so get your questions in for
Jen we can’t get too many more on here live but you had a really bad injury yeah and we won’t go into that now but on your website you are you are you are starting some videos about how to how to cope with these sort of things first thing you did was the shoulder yeah chop one with just and just very basic like you know small chop injuries which
I have not had and then shoulder injury which again I it was not necessarily my my injuries did not involve either of those but I did do videos with colleagues where we talk about sort of little exercises to get you over the hump and also back into playing and just kind of the the idea of patience and you know just like how to rebuild in a way that you feel confident that you’ve actually been able to whenever you have an injury you’ve got the opportunity to build your foundation again and so you can check and make sure that the foundation that you built when you
Were you know 10 is actually like the smartest way to do it a lot of living fight you had five minutes a day you were like yeah I had a car accident so I had a joy injury and then it ended up spiraling into a speech on the dashboard yes I put you back on the dashboard so that and then that turned into a back injury which now
I’m dealing with and had a surgery for a couple years ago so it’s sort of two injuries coming from one event but yeah it’s interesting I think the the basic thing is that when you build back up you have the chance to rethink how you play and then yeah there’s there’s a beautiful website called musicians well that a colleague of ours
Angela Cordell builder put up with with injury recovery stories and mine were very minor compared to what a lot of people you know go through but I think there’s starting now there’s a lot of support in the online community about that and people are very willing to talk about that so definitely if you’ve ever had an injury and want to talk about recovery and all the resources please contact me but there’s a lot there’s a lot of there’s a lot of support are there any any problem we have there’s a lot of support and and that’s what’s so wonderful that’s why
I started the horn hangouts because because I I was a very lonely student believe it or not and there was just not you didn’t talk about these things but these days these days there’s a lot of support out there and also I love to meet teachers like you who are not only interested in the in the in the physical side of it but also in the mental and teaching the whole person
I think that’s what I’m taking away from this horn hangout the most is that you are a true true all-rounder and an amazing horn player to go with it and we it’s always the way you guys why do you come up with all the questions now everyone’s like and then there’s some fantastic questions coming in but we will um but yeah your website’s been posted do you combine farkas with
Caruso yes yes good yes the fergus flexibility exactly I do too there’s all sorts of things that someone else to know if you’re going to get a t-shirt are you going to get a t-shirt there was a hashtag will I get a t-shirt Jen is getting a t-shirt there are cool t-shirts you know if you wear them outs how people sort of stare because they sort of yeah so there you go a heart horn t-shirt for you and we want you to become one of our horn hangout heroes and look at a photo of you somewhere in
Philly guys we’re gonna have to say goodbye now because I have to go and teach and then I have to go to New York because it sounds very glamorous was only an hour and a half right yeah I’ve got a master class at Julie Julia tonight and tomorrow at 4 o’clock New York time which is 10 p.m.
Berlin time and Tim God knows what time it is in Melbourne he doesn’t know what time it is now so we’re doing a wonderful hangout with Eric rawski which is fantastic as he hasn’t been so active online and we are changing all that and we’re doing something special called an opera a horn hangout opera quiz where his students are gonna be playing us opera excerpts and there are prizes to be won so
I want an amazing prizes so I wanna stick everybody watching today to tune in tomorrow 4:00 p.m. for the next horn hangout you’ll be there weren’t you yeah online yes absolutely win win some prizes the Jen you are a true inspiration thank you so much and there’s so much I want to talk to you about we’re just gonna have to do part 2 and part 3 and part 4 next time
I come in so much RAM I was thinking of a way how we can finish finish the horn hanger if people want to contact you they can contact you via your your website right there’s a contact email on that and devon has posted the link um thank you Durbin for being there thank you Alex Kasparov ickiest in
Berlin who’s also been helping with the website Thank You handsome Tim thank you Alexander’s think Philip Alexander’s watching right now for helping set us Thank You Curtis and Thank You Curtis horns and Curtis horns because you’ve been so amazing we’re going to finish the horn hangout with doughnuts you can see this is this is Victoria who made the video it’s also one of my
Pacific music festival babies once in the Pacific Music Festival always family members come on you guys come and come and come on you have some doughnuts oh yeah there are enough for all of us look at that okay so I’m goodbye from Philly okay grab come on that’s like which one shall I get which one is the no
I want what’s that one can you get everybody else everybody but Tim we need you to come over you cannot really can you okay just wave in front of the camera say goodbye goodbye from Huntington yes what you take that okay now oh my god I got the most decadent one okay so one two three lovely to see you all see you tomorrow 4 o’clock thanks
Jenn the early [Music]
Horn Hangouts are created by Sarah Willis of the Berlin Philharmonic. Brassbanned is a proud long-time collaborator and streaming partner.
