I can’t believe it’s been three weeks since the last update! Lots to share…
So, right after I wrote the last entry, I got a call from the Co-Artistic director of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS). I was about to board my flight to Chicago to play the Ligeti trio and she said the violinist is sick.
“We’ll need to change the program.”
No problem. We change it to the Brahms horn trio, making it the third consecutive week I played the piece. But there’s more. The violinist was supposed to play a solo on the first half, so we’d need to fill some space.
“What do you have?”
Now, I’ve never been asked this question before under these circumstances and it felt very much like an industry moment. Like, as close as horn playing can get to “The Devil Wears Prada”. It’s an old movie. You should watch it. Anyway, I had an answer! Multiple answers! I sent a couple of examples from my video recital (I really hope you’ve watched that by now, if you call yourself my student), and we ended up going with “Air” by Jörg Widmann. I had three days to whip it in to (memorized) shape. The concert was at the Harris Theatre. I also happened to be able to visit David Cooper and David Griffin (CSO hornists) at their studio class at Roosevelt University. Coincidentally, they were having a class focusing on music for horn alone.✌🏽
From Chicago I flew to NYC. I had a couple of days off to recuperate, and then I met up with some of my colleagues from the International Contemporary Ensemble to record a piece called “Soundlines” by the one and only George Lewis. It features Steven Schick as the soloist and conductor and will be released sometime next year.
After NYC I flew to Atlanta, which would be my home base for masterclasses at the University of Alabama, the University of Georgia and Columbus State University. I’m from Atlanta so I stayed with my mom. It was great visiting these schools and getting to see a variety of how things are done elsewhere. U of A has their studio classes at 7am. Do you want that?? We can vote on it…
After Atlanta, I flew back up to NYC to rehearse with The Knights for the Germany/Denmark tour I am on right now. It’s a crazy schedule, but it’s nice to be here. You guys know who Ray Chen is?? 😃 Also, I will be meeting up with some Euro horn gurus, so be ready for me to bring back some more teaching tools from across the Atlantic! Ok now I rest…
That’s Eric Jacobsenand Ray Chen
また今度