“Dreams Come True…and a bit of Aura Fluffing” Julie Landsman talks to Sarah Willis live from Miami on the Horn Hangouts about her awesome career and her teaching philosophies. Thanks to New World Symphony for setting this up, sorry about Sarah´s shaky hotel internet connection! 10.04.2014
Transcript
Auto-generated from the live stream, expect the occasional robot mishearing.
And now we’re on live so show us what you’re up to we’re doing some energy medicine to get ourselves ready for the audience out there can we all do it with you I wish you would this is called AA fluffing and it’s a way of just making the energy around you radiate so that you feel awesome and it’s a great energy to take out on stage so start by rubbing your hands together and get some heat going shake it off and then put put your head right in the middle of that warm energy and then do figure eights in front of your body so you’re
Just really stirring up the pot and then fluff up your or get all that great energy going and as you put your arms out surround yourself with the most beautiful colors that you can imagine here we are in Miami how about a sunrise on the beach and then end with your hands on your heart and just wish everybody well here we are the seat ready go what a great way to start this hangout hi everybody welcome to this horn
Hangout which is obviously going to be a very special one we’ve never actually started like that before um I’m really happy to welcome you back it’s been a while since we’ve done a horn hangout and um I’m at the moment in Bon Bon which is South Germany the Berlin Phil is here on their Easter Festival and we’ve got lots and lots of stuff to do um but
I’m really happy and very proud that Julie lansman has time to join us today live from New World Symphony Julie welcome to the horn Hangouts we finally got you here I’m so happy thank you you thanks for the invitation and thank you Justin and New World Symphony for making this work absolutely thanks to Justin who um is up in the control room um of
New World Symphony and also to our very own Tim Kelly who got up at five o’clock this morning Tim to make this Hangout work as well so thanks to really thanks to both of you it’s fantastic and Julie Tell me who you’re with this is Alexander keenley who has been my student for many years when did we start working together
Alex 2008 200 eight that’s right that’s a very long time um he was my student at juliard it’s his fourth year in the New World Symphony and he’s on his way to the Dallas Symphony go out congratulations Alex Round of Applause please all over the world Alex you’re getting Applause you’re getting Applause from the UK Ireland Canada
Argentina California Sweden Finland United States um really that those are all only a few of them so um so well done that’s a great job that you got and also you’re going to be with one of my favorite other favorite people Dave Cooper so that should be quite a combination you too I’m really looking forward to it that’s great
Julie who else have you got there um I’ve got um Anthony delanis who has been my student in the Music Academy of the west where I teach in the Summers and this is his first year the New World Symphony and he hails from San Francisco and he is an awesome person and a great horn player you’ll be hearing about
Anthony awesome Anthony welcome Anthony and Anthony you’re on your phone aren’t you you’re you’re you’re doing some live blogging from the um from the room so thank you for doing that any questions for Anthony about what it’s like to be at New World Symphony just get in there so pan round to the left I think a bit more who else have we got we have
Dominic Rotella who’s in his second year new world he’s from Chicago he’s a runner a handsome guy guy and a really awesome talented young man we just had a great lesson this afternoon I think we had a major breakthrough actually was one of those was an awesome lesson fantastic Anthony you’re welcome to do some blogging as well from the from the room um
Julie you have a very handsome horn horn class down there I’m I’m very impressed so we have quite a lot of questions um some people are still saying that the video is still private which is a shame I think they just need to refresh um and uh Tim will sort you guys out in a sec uh because it’s not a private we have lots of people still watching um max horn has said he’ll be playing with these fellas tomorrow at
New World for the side by side competition what’s that well actually I’m not playing with them at a side by-side competition are you playing with me at a side bys side competition um we’ve got I think section will start tomorrow and then the following week we’re doing a side by-side performance with a lot of local talented high school students
Ah that’s it so someone’s watching Max horn is watching who’s going to be playing with you guys Julie George Lloyd is watching from Canada he played second to you hi George thanks for joining us so we’ve got quite a few people watching all over the world Julie I wanted to start with something we talked about yesterday we had a little phone conversation and your your wish um what we should talk about had a title and this hangout should be called
Dreams Come true yes indeed they do your dreams really have come true they have I set my goal when I was about 13 and started French horn lessons with the former first Horn of the Met Howard Howard and I decided I think in my Howard Howard well it’s a long story do you want to hear that or should we talk about dreams no no no no you tell us all the stories all the stories you want
I think he was adopted by his grandparents parents and their last name was Howard but he had already been named Howard so it’s actually Howard T Howard okay good it was very easy for me as a young student to transfer from Mr Howard to Howard I just had to leave one little word out that’s very useful so you stud you started in a band you started playing horn in a band yep in the
Ardsley High School band in Westchester New York and they needed French horn players so here I am many years later honestly it was the only thing I could do well at that age I was not a good student and um I needed something I needed a voice I needed a way to express word what words were unable to express for me so horn came at a perfect time and uh
I set my dreams very young to be exactly where my teacher was which was first Horn of the met so it started at age 13 it took until I was 30 to get there but I was quite steadfast in my resolve wow you said I read in an interview that you said you you spent a lot of time up in the gods with your binoculars not trained on the stage but trained on the pit exactly
I had Great opera glasses in those days 7 by 35 as I recall and most of the time I was up in standing room doing this just trying to I had my eye on the chair I was staring at the horn section and all of the colleagues who I would later work with it was pretty wild um the stage occasionally would enter into my um awareness there was some great singers back then who taught me the example of playing lyrically from the heart
I’ll name a few Marilyn horn was one of my top examples of a sound that I wanted a technique that was clean and clear her voice projected from the stage of the Met throughout the entire opera house which is ginormous kind of like the Fel and V Boden Boden it’s they’re ginormous Halls you know it well it’s huge you need a core in your sound that’s going to get from the pit or the stage to the last row and standing room so that’s where my dreams got formed is it true that you used to kiss the ground when you went into the
Met only after I got the job a for the first 10 years I just I couldn’t believe I was walking into the stage door and that I really had this job but it was so um awesome it was so big so such big shoes to fill that yeah I was very grateful every time I walked into that stage door you you won the job um age 30 and you were the first female brass player and
I know as myself I get this question all the time what’s it like being the only girl you really were the first I wondered if you’d ask me that girl question I have to it’s part of part I have to people are already asking it on the chat for you so um I have much much much to say sarin
I have a feeling you’re it’s going to resonate with some of your experiences I made I made it my business to be better than all the guys there was no question in my mind I wasn’t going to give them nothing to question I was going to play better than they had ever heard and I did so I used it as inspiration for greatness and uh it shut them up basically they they had no room to quibble you said in an interview that for you it was acts of courage on a daily basis oh yeah playing first horn oh my
God it’s like walking on a Highwire every day and there’s a lot that goes into it it became a lifestyle so that every day was really based upon what did I have to play that day what’s my performance that night or that afternoon and I would base my activities throughout the day to play a great Rosen Cavalier that night you just don’t go out shopping and you know mindlessly doing things on a day of a
Rosen cavaliere the day is about what do I need to do to get ready to be awesome and I I gave 200% all the time yeah I’m getting a little bit of a delay here sorry you look gorgeous and you sound gorgeous but sometimes the two gorgeous aren’t meeting up so I’m sorry if any of you are experiencing that but
Google Hangout sometimes I’m in a hotel and you know what the connection is like sometimes it’s it might be a little bit off um but I I remember from my time I was at the Opera before in Berlin before I I got into the Berlin fill and I remember it was a constant struggle well not you had to get used to it not a struggle once you got used to it was okay but to have
Rosen Cavalier One Night Magic Flute the next night um you know a concert two nights later it was a constant I really had to learn like you say to pace yourself every day and and think okay what do my chops need every day and also the flexibility of style it’s actually a beautiful thing it’s just like being an athlete and and switching venues each day to go from
Meister Singer One Night in Magic Flute the next day was Quite a feat and I loved it I really like the challenge of the the varied Styles and um we also about 10 years into being at the Met just started a series at Carnegie Hall so on our day off we actually were in Carnegie Hall with a one shot chance at doing maler 4 or mer 7 or mer 9 or
DUS canab and vorn it was that added a lot of excitement I Rosen Cavalier wasn’t enough and me Zinger you guys had to go went and did all the Mala stuff but I think it’s important for an opera orchester to play concerts as well well Jimmy certainly thought so our wonderful boss Jimmy Levine who who I’m sure you’ve had the privilege of working with not personally but
I’ve been to many of his concerts and actually when I I went to the met the first time at the Met he was conducting and it was it was that moart Opera with the incredibly different difficult horn Aras with a strange name not not K fantu it was something else with the Domo I think it maybe it was the ad
Domo I thought I can’t maybe it was your Domino with those those Aras in the and I remember looking over the pit and seeing you it was the most sound it was you and Jimmy what I remember about that the first met thank you thank you so much I’m glad you were there I’ve been retired from the
Met for three years now but I’m staying quite busy doing lots of things I know which we are going to get on to because that is all about your dreams but because we’re talking about the Met Tim and I have a little surprise for you hi Julie have a great horn hang from the Met horn section parshley
Julie pilot Michelle Baker Barbara yine have fun the Met horns Michelle Julie um and Barbara all wanting to send their love last night they did a little video for you these are my girls and I’m so proud of them and they make me smile from ear to ear you have many horn players uh many horn students in incredibly incredibly fantastic positions
All Over America indeed congratulations Alex what is it about Julie that makes her such an awesome teacher Julie is good at not only addressing your physical needs but your mental needs I feel like she teaches a foundation of horn playing um well first of all based on the Carmine Caruso method which Julie might talk about more but also upon being
Soulful at all times when you play so you’re not just delivering notes but you’re really sincerely trying to say something when you play music so she really is the complete package of of teaching you how to get around the instrument but also how to be a deep musician how to say something that’s worth listening to Julie you’re gonna buy
Alex a beer off this I already did last night but I might have to get him another one I think you do so Alex what you’re saying is Julie teaches the in entire person not just the horn player that’s correct that’s a very special thing because I’ve known Tech technical teachers in my time I’ve known teachers whove worked very well on the person but haven’t been so great with the technical so um
Julie is that your philosophy teach the whole person it’s certainly part of my philosophy Another Part Of My Philosophy I learned from my first teacher Howard Howard and that is to teach the student to teach themselves so I try to make the lessons models of how they need to practice and what they need to tell themselves in the practice room some of them listen to me and some of them don’t and
I just repeat myself an awful lot at times until they get it which is also the way Carmine Caruso taught me he would say the same thing week after week and I finally I said I know you told me that already and his answer was okay baby until you get it I’m gonna keep repeating it to you so
I love patience say what I loved you you you said that being taught by carine Caruso was like having Mr Rogers as a teacher yes yes he was a very healing force in my young life his way of teaching was very positive there was no um negativity in the room it was all I’m going to make you better from here and his
General philosophy about teaching was that it’s not a bad student but it’s a bad teacher who can’t make the student sound better so he put the onus on the teacher to help the student improve and I try to honor what my teachers have taught me and I’ve already mentioned too while we’re on the topic of teachers I also had the privilege of studying with
Jimmy Chambers and I’m I have in front of me on this table the con ad now along with Chambers and the con ad go this particular beautiful Lush creamy sound that I honor and I go for it and I strive for it every day I’m not saying that can’t be achieved on another instrument it certainly can can but this is my roots this is the way
I honor the schooling I come from the city I grew up in and the type of horn sound that turns me on wow that’s that that’s great I mean I I was blown away by it when I heard it at the Met um really it was it was are you doing a lot of playing these days too
I’m I’m staying busy I one of my students is Jen Monon and she just had her second baby in Philadelphia is she listen it I don’t know she is too busy are you Kidd this woman she has two babies first taught in the Philly Orchestra I think she moved to a new home yesterday so I can not imagine she’s listening but hats off to
Jen she has many balls in the air but I was able to take over for her in Philadelphia for a few weeks this season much to my pleasure I was subbing for my student oh that’s not a wonderful feeling it’s the way it should be actually Alex are you going to get Julian to sub for you I hope so that’d be awesome yeah but then it would be so much fun if she was subbing for you you wanted to sub with you yeah
I love playing with Julie we actually just did the Brandenburg together in December I brought Alex to St Paul where we were both substitute horns for the Branden bggs and we had a ball I saw the picture on Facebook good old Facebook I saw you playing together very handy that Facebook isn’t it very very it’s scary as well but um um thank you for all of you who shared about
Julie um on Facebook uh Julie your your hangout was we advertised it very short notice it had more shares and more comments than any of the Hangouts we’ve done before so really it shows you how love loved you are around the world thank you so much and by the way in in the interim we’ve had another fellow from
New World show up can come on over Alex have a seat Alex tell about yourself hi nice to see you and you you haven’t met Tim but you’re you’re Australian as well so the two of you can I’m sure you you sympathize that Tim is woken up at six in the morning to see you guys yes I
I feel I feel his [Laughter] pain thank you for joining us I did a um a long-distance master class and and Alex was there Alex and Alex and neon and Alex uh anyway Julie um can I get to some of the questions that all the people are writing in sometimes it’s a little bit random people can I just fire a few at you go for
Alex another Alex um ozolin he says a question for you what preparations do you make and how do you change your sound to move from the Opera pit to the stage for the big works oh I know Alex ozolins hi Alex um uh let’s see how do I prepare myself well on a technical level I’ll add more
Dynamic studies when I’ve got heavy orchestral playing to do and that would bring us into the Carmine Caruso routine which I practice every day and teach he’s got some very potent Dynamics studies that really put a lot of heft in the sound so when I’ve got to get out of the pit and and play heavier Works my routine gets heavier as preparation so what you’re saying is which
I really really appreciate you saying because I totally believe in this it you don’t necessarily need the same routine every day you have to tailor make it to to watch is coming up for sure for sure I mean it’s got the basic principles always um meaning good timing good air good support um a keen ear for a beautiful sound throughout all the registers a very clean articulation that’s even up and down through the instrument
I’ve got my specifics that I always go for but I will tail or make it depending on what’s coming up sure sure thank you Max horn again asked were there any women horn players that you looked up to when you were young no well I wanted to say no but my my memory bank is pulling up a few people but
I didn’t know them there was Ethel merker I didn’t know her but I certainly know of her now there was Kathleen Wilbur Who was a New Yorker in the um New York City Ballet for many many years um but not a whole lot of them of course there’s Gail Williams who’s my contemporary there’s now a new generation including yourself and my met girls
Michelle Baker who is another awesome lwh horn player such as yourself you guys own the low register thank you very much oh thank you well no they are and and the Met I’m so impressed that you have that it’s such a girly section well it is now and part of it is because there’s a screen for these auditions had it not been for that screen
I might not have been here talking to you today you really think so I know so because the guys in the Met had their eye on somebody else and I was aware of it but thank goodness there was a screen because I nailed that audition and I W at faren Square I even found out later the voting um when
I walked out from behind the screen I heard them gasping they exped I still can hear it and see it I took I decided to roll a camera in my mind partly because I was in such shock that I needed to remember it but they did not expect a young woman a 30-year-old to walk out from behind that screen and um since that time the fellow who was my runnerup who
I believe they wanted to get the job is playing first horn at the Met so it’s all the score has been evened out all all along this is my colleague Joseph anderer my esteemed friend from many many years ago but um I do believe the screen has been a beautiful thing for equalizing the audition procedure and at this point
I think there’s four women in the met in the horn section and they’re all my students amazing how did that happen because they played the best not because they were seen or anyone knew they were my students they just played the last that’s that’s very fair Alex did you play behind a screen for your audition for Dallas for
Dallas yes there was a screen for the first two rounds and then the screen came down for the final round which involved solo playing and then the superfinal round which was Duets okay a jet did you have to play with Dave uh yeah I got to play with Dave in the final round it was really fun I think that’s the best way to finish an audition absolutely
I I never played an audition behind the screen I I never had that pleasure or or um different it’s not qu or bad in terms of your personal input I think it’s great in terms of the committee’s input because there’s no Prejudice and in fact I don’t know if you’ve read the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell have you heard about this it’s just written about that saying they that they they read the story about how you got the job in that book um maybe someone can put a link up to it uh in case anyone wants to wants to see it well it’s the
Final Chapter has to do with my audition and the the whole premise of the book is making quick Impressions so in the Met auditions the quick impressions are based on your ears and your sense of the person based on how they sound it has nothing to do with how they look they’re what if they’re male or female or white or black it is how they play their instruments and
I think it’s great good well it was great that you got the job let me fire a few yeah awesome let me fire a few more questions at at you Hadley Reynolds who’s a very um very loyal horn hangout supporter he wanted to know any tips for how to develop endurance to play Heavy concerts over such a long career but
I guess you’ve just explained that with the Caruso um that you you tailor make that but you have to be smart about it too you can’t you have to treat it like you’re going to the gym and lifting weights and you have to do it very incrementally and you need to rest in between and stretch out or in our case play petal tones and just be very smart don’t be an idiot if you start going in there and pumping a lot of iron you’ll pull muscles and not be able to play the same with the horn you go in there and start some heavy lifting
And pounding without the recovery time you’ll get injured yeah yeah here totally totally agree I’m going um there there questions are coming in really fast and furiously Maddie tarantelli says Sam pilafian says hi thank you Sam’s the one of the best tuba players I know and there these people are all in Miami with me right now yeah that’s right that’s that’s fantastic um
Madison konheim um he already said uh hi to Sarah and Julie my two F favorite horn women yay um and what do you suggest of the most important teach things to teach students who are just beginning to learn the horn that question comes up a lot from from people that are teaching young students enjoyment have fun make it something pleasurable that you want to go back and do again as opposed to a chore and don’t be rate the student make them feel like a million bucks if they do something right just reinforce positively yeah yeah that’s amen
Alex what you can just say how do you how do you learn do you just you’re just there with your mouth open the whole time with all these wi words of wisdom coming out I’m just trying to take it all in Remember Everything do you tape all your lessons you record them all there don’t you no I don’t record all of my lessons only recently yeah we had a two-hour marathon in
Tampa before his Dallas audition yeah and I raped him over the coals this kid bounces back and he gets better so I I I worked him really hard and he recorded that lesson but I don’t think we did that in uh in Julie art no but Julie is is so good at finding patterns in your play she doesn’t give you a thousand or a hundred things to do in a week she’ll say this is the biggest issue that you’re having and this is how to fix it and it’s usually very simple in theory it’s it’s a simple idea but then learning to do something differently
Can be very different for example if I’m thinking way too much when I’m playing and Julie saying well no you really need to be more imaginative you need to feel the time learning to then go and actually do that consistently takes a lot of time and effort because basically we we humans we don’t like change actually at all do we it’s very
I change is quite a scary thing um so to get get a student to actually change something like that I mean they think it’s great but often the the subconscious resists it well said and I’m hoping some of my best students in New York are listening to that because no matter how many times I say it they’re a little resistant to change and
I won’t name names but I do believe they’re listening right now I by the way I love the name juliard School of Music has actually been renamed to Julie’s yard oh yes indeed it’s my school it’s your school I have I have a Caruso question from Brian in Sweden he asked did Caruso adopt his teaching to the
French horn in any way or was it the same exercises as for the trumpet good question Brian thanks it’s an awesome question because it’ll lead me into my next next exciting announcement which is that I’m going to do a video series of the Caruso method for French horn that said all instruments can learn from it but um
I’m going to be working with Alex keenley over here and I do believe it will be produced at juliard hopefully in the late spring we’re still working out the details but I can’t wait to put that out to the public free of charge so that whatever misconceptions or confusions or lack of knowledge is out there about this method that
I hold near and dear to my heart and is the basis of my playing and my teaching will be out there and available to anybody including Brien and Sweden Round of Applause from the horn Hangouts viewers all over the world I can hear it hear it coming in um that that is fantastic and Julie when it comes out let us know we can maybe do a horn hangout live to introduce it to everybody um that would be a great idea idea um let’s carry on with all um hi to
Julie and all my friends in the New World Symphony from Juan beros I love him isn’t it isn’t it a great feeling to know but all these people are watching I just I it’s just it’s awesome it really blows me away um Andre Andre and Watford ask if are there any Infamous horn excerpts that those familiar with it symphonic repertoire wouldn’t know are there any
Infamous excerpts that that aren’t on the on the on the orchestral excerpt list but that were either particularly tricky ones for you or particular favorites well everyone should take a look at Meister singer the end of act two the ghorn pillow fight Fugue I love it yeah right that one everyone should have in their chops I remember we asked someone in an audition when
I was at the shopa just it was it came down to a couple of people and we asked people to play that assuming they would know it uhuh they it’s very hard to get in your fingers that’s a very very good one and Alana from San Diego asked could you ask what inspired Julie to continue in the
Met for so long well it your job it was an awesome job well I would say that listening to Great singing every night was addictive I couldn’t stop it just and I miss it I’ve had withdrawal um but it kept me very very occupied for 25 beautiful years yeah yeah I I I agree we we’re playing Manon let go right now best and and
I’m just dying every time every time dig starts singing his solo to Manon I wish I was her yeah yeah I I agree with you so much and Pini is like the essence of life yeah yeah I it’s just it’s just Simon’s first Pini he hasn’t done Pini before wow and and he’s just he just says why didn’t
I do this before you know he’s he’s 59 and he’s never done Pini and I think he’s going to be making up for it in the next few years um there’s a the ultimate Opera horn question from Nathaniel silver schlock hi Julie how do you master yeah do is one of my youngest students and he is formidable hiel and he wants to know how you master
SE Freed’s horn call how many times did you have to play that oh well first of all that was the winning excerpt at my audition oh which is also documented in the book blink um I used to play that for like I was eating breakfast I played it all the time I loved it for me it was like a romp in the park you get your students to play it excuse me does you get you make your students play it
Alex do you have to play it every day no but we went over it yeah we certainly learned it and in fact when they would ask us for solos and auditions when you could choose your solo piece I would open up with the long call at that point they didn’t say it has to be Strauss one or two or
Mozart 2 or four it’s just solo of your choice so I used it as my own personal announcement and my own Julie call it should be called a Julie call I think V if Vagner had known you he’d probably have called called it that there’s a few things about me that he might not have approved that but we won’t go there
I would love to go there but actually you know we’d have to raise the rating probably on on the the open channel on you Michelle Baker’s watching oh hi Mrs B yeah Mrs B she says hi to Julie and Alex as well and thank you for watching well done Michelle for getting onto the onto the hangout I’m really impressed
I’m impressed too like she doesn’t have other things to do Everyone’s Watching Trevor knuckle says hi to Julie my amazing teacher are you you practicing Trevor get to work oh my goodness articulation scales even this of sound do you hear me um yeah matosa says Trevor go back to practicing dude yeah absolutely this Julie when we’re finished with this
I’ll send you a copy of the chat so you can see who who is who’s joined in I mean please send all your messages for Julie if I don’t get a chance to read them out then then she’ll she will get to see them so write in WR in anything you want well most things if it’s not nice nice things we’d love to hear all your stories about
Julie well I would anyway so um Julie what about uh yeah I was just about to ask you about chamber music and Justin bush has just asked the exact same question what about your experience with chamber music and your approach to various Ensemble combinations well I have much to say about that believe it or not playing in the
Met Opera was was like playing chamber music although it’s an orchestra of 100 people we rarely got enough direction from the podium no insult to any particular conductor it’s just most of it was done by acute listening skills and really serious listening because I could barely see the first clarinet but I had to play with him in unison all the time so excuse me where did you sit in the pits we sat let’s say if
I’m the conductor um we sat over here the woodwinds were over here under the pit the first violins over here second violins over here so behind you behind us unfortunately was the brass and I’m still paying for that the horns sat stacked so I was very lucky to have the third and fourth horns as a buffer zone between me and the heavy brass that’s great um and what um so
Opera is chamber music I don’t think I think every horn player should play Opera in their lives at some point you can’t learn better chamber music than playing Opera well plus you can’t drown the singer out or otherwise you you’re just playing in bad taste so we’re always in an accompaniment role even if there’s a solo for the horn it has to be something that the singer would do or has already done or something that will inspire them to do it even better so there’s always this exchange which is what chamber music is plus
Levine was very very fussy about using a very lean flexible approach to tone so my sound has a lot of colors and malleability and particularly since being in the Opera at the softer end that’s where we had to live most of the time so spinning colors in a chamber music like f became second nature yeah absolutely did you do a lot of quintet brass quintet wind quintet did the
Met have a brass Ensemble now don’t they really awesome one yeah that happened right before I left in fact there’s a beautiful recording of me with the eight horns from the Met on one of the Met brass recordings maybe Michelle can type in which one that one is called it’s a Nonet if she still there what is that recording because it’s a
Nonet with me and the Met horns with an arrangement of a Mozart Arya from Coy fute it was a farewell to my tenure there and it is so beautiful and we’ve got I think n98 DS playing so it’s worth listening to it must have been very sad to leave very it was I was ready though and I wanted
I had a goal my goal was to leave before I sounded bad so that people would miss me and they could say oh oh it’s not the same without you and you know I didn’t want to be um wished ill I didn’t want colleagues to say why hasn’t she left 10 years ago it’s like oh why is she leaving now so it was sort of in the nicka time in my opinion but um don’t you find
I found this I still find it Opera just stays in your head you can’t you can’t rid yourself of all these amazing areas it’s like a it just it accompanies you all the time at least now with Manon I can’t can’t get rid of it it’s just man and I still am singing things for Manon because lucky me
I got to play with the Washington National Opera last year and I was a guest first torn on meno and Triston this past fall might have been my last vogner I’m not sure but that’s a that’s a hefty undertaking Tristan do you guys change we always used to change in Tristan um never we we never changed at the
Met we didn’t change on the ring we didn’t change on my singer Imagine playing six hour ouch the most physical pain I’ve ever experienced was in the third Act of Meister singer I don’t know how I got from beginning to end everything was screaming pain but wow here I am what did you do when you went reach those moments because
I remember Gail Williams saying um Bud Hurst has told her just to blow the mouthpiece off her face when she was feeling tired that’s interesting I reached very very deep first of all I’d sneak in in in louder passages some pedal F Sharps which is part of my Caruso recovery just so I can get some blood to my face
I remember doing this specifically in act three of zigf freed because that’s also a long night very better demung too they’re long nights so I would sneak in some pedal tones while my assistant was playing all the heavy stuff it’s I also learned to use an assistant very wisely thank you very much very grateful for my wonderful assistance and um
I would find other places to pull out resources like really great support really using you know very deep abdominal support so that it supported what was left of my tired chops and then of course I go to precision timing as well so the timing was my way of keeping accurate so that even with an exhausted face and my body that was screaming
I had every other resource that I could find to get from beginning to and I did I actually was quite strong yeah yeah no I I heard legendary um Chelsea McFarland and Atlanta a do you have an emotional connection to a specific Opera while I imagine you have many yeah I do the first one that comes to mind since
I know Michelle is listening is our figuros I loved playing figuro I love playing it with Michelle I love doing it with Jimmy leine also Magic Flute they were just so tasty and so beautiful um I miss them I would love to do them again Tusa another one right up there on my list of favorites it’s just so um
Sumptuous Sumptuous that’s a very British word Sumptuous love it Robert F says hi Mrs lansman Hees hello from Romania um we’ve really got uh people are watching from everywhere you will see um a very good question also was one of my questions it’s from Chelsea again in Atlanta it was one thing I was going to ask you what how do you think um horn playing has changed since when you started that is a very good question and the saddest part to me about the change in
Horn playing is the sound concept I feel that sound especially in America has really taken second seat to technique and Flash and I am all about sound the soul of your playing is the color and quality of your tone and not your Technique so I can’t say enough things to the young players out there who are aspiring to develop their own sound something that speaks from their heart about how they feel not about who’s flashier higher louder faster
Alex what does Julie do with you for sound it all starts from the heart you really have to be personal and find something that’s so deep and so vulnerable that maybe you would never tell anyone about it maybe something that you could never admit in person except to those that are closest to you and find a way to bring that bring that to life you know find some real sincere meaningful inspiration and it’ll come out in your sounds wow that’s powerful stuff
Julie you you do like to I mean this at the very beginning of the hangout with your um getting the energy flowing and the you and and you know and the feeling the the space um you you do like your alternative methods as well that’s very important part for you because people have also asked what do you do when you’re not playing the horn
I mean or that yoga stuff like that some yoga I swim every day just because every day in fact one of the things that it takes to get me to come teach in your town is a good pool and I happen to be staying at the Raleigh Hotel in Miami with a world famous pool where Johnny Weiss meller did some of his movies and um
I just I’m thrilled I’m in that pool every day and it’s makes me very happy so swimming for me is essential I’m also been practicing some Energy Medicine a woman named Donna Eden has some Energy Medicine routines that you saw us you joined us with the aura fluffing which um just sort of opens you up to having a beautiful sound and you know good energy we had a lot of people who missed that um at the very beginning because they were having trouble uh clicking in so
I think that’s how we’ll finish um The Hangout if if you don’t mind maybe we can all do that together um everyone around the world watching this hangout I think we should um all join in and and try doing this um what do you think guys you think it’s a good idea yeah are you asking me Sarah
I think you’re a troublemaker I told you this before no I think it’s great I think it’s great we we we like unusual things on the horn Hangouts and I would just so does everyone want to do some Aura fluffing are we about ready are we are we cooked here we almost cooked um I want you guys to write in and tell us if we if you want us to do these ex what are they what’s it called again
Aura fluffing AA Aura fluffing that a shutter like fluffing you know fluff it up you ever fluff up a pillow or a fluffing I would like to fluff up fluff up my aura I can hardly even say it but no well why not even though it’s quarter past 11 at night here um I had one last question you your dreams came true basically you you had your dream job you have amazing students um
I spoke to um Barbara and to Michelle and just ask and also um Danielle kumman who um said you’re an honorary genas Barbie and I just said what is it about Julie and they all say it’s because you care so much for your students it’s not exactly what you teach it’s it’s the fact that you care and that um they’re like your children indeed indeed
I think the most important part of teaching that I learned from Carmine Caruso is connecting with love to who you’re teaching yeah yeah yeah very important if you were starting out again um knowing what you know now would you do anything differently and if so what or would you not do something I think if I started out again
I would try to be less anxious I had a fair amount of anxiety and part of it led me to all these wonderful things like meditation visualization Energy Medicine and it’s made me a better teacher but in terms of my own inter interal life it was a lot to manage so if I could redo it I’d ask for 25% less anxiety
I think I’d ask for 50 you know what I mean so we have people from Vienna from China from Hungary from the States from um everyone’s saying let’s do the aura fluffing to finish off with let’s do it so we have to stand up for that Justin are you ready to move that camera around we’re going to go to the back here
I’ll take all my fellows with I’m standing up in my hotel room uh you guys are all standing up Tim Melbourne Justin we want you up on your feet as well okay can you hear me if I don’t have the mic on if you if you talk quite loudly okay okay there we go so let’s start by just getting our feet grounded on the floor and just really sink down in and take a nice deep breath and on the exhale just sink down into your heels so
AA fluffing starts by getting some energy going let’s rub our hands together and feel some heat you guys all doing this out there I hope so get some heat going and and shake it off and then put that energy right between your head like that so feel that Heat going into your ears and your heads right in between the energy and then make some figure eight and front of your heart front of your belly in front of your feet and then fluff up all that beautiful energy around you and as you put your arms out picture surrounding yourself with the most beautiful colors
I’m a purple kind of girl so I’ve got lots of purples going and you can go inside that bubble anytime put your hands on your heart and wish yourself and everybody else well I wish everybody well thank you Sarah you are awesome I wish all of you well Julie you are really incredible thanks so much to the fellows the horm fellows thanks you guys for joining us um really meant a lot to me that you are there and you are so lucky to have
Julie there in person I I can’t wait to come over to New York and meet you in person Julie you’re an incredibly special person let me know the next time you’re in town absolutely and I hope you’ll join us back on a live horn hangout very soon Tim thanks for being there Justin thanks for being there all to you thanks keep your messages coming for
Julie on the chat she’ll be sure to read them see you next time very very soon bye
Horn Hangouts are created by Sarah Willis of the Berlin Philharmonic. Brassbanned is a proud long-time collaborator and streaming partner.
