Welcome!

Hello everyone, and welcome to my new blog, Horn Becomes Her, about women in horn playing by a woman in horn playing! 

I decided to start this project for several reasons.First of all, women have not always been welcomed in the brass world. Attitudes have, of course, changed in the last few decades, but we still have a long way to go in achieving gender parity in major orchestras. 

I also had a few epiphanies over the last several years. When I arrived to start my doctorate at the University of Miami and was preparing for my first recital, I realized that I had never performed a solo or chamber piece written by a woman. I was floored by this discovery. So, I went digging to find some great music by female composers and stumbled across Lin Foulk’s wonderful website featuring a catalog of works that fit this description. (Check it out here: http://www.linfoulk.org).

This sparked a fire in me; at that point, I had been playing horn for around 15 years, and had only performed works by men?? There was no way I could let this continue.

Since then, I have had many conversations with friends, colleagues, and mentors, with mixed reactions to my passion for music by women. Some have thought it quaint, a specialist niche that is fine to tack on to recitals full of Schumann, Brahms, etc. but not worth really paying attention to. Others have been outright hostile; “If there was any great music by women composers, I would have heard it by now! It would be everywhere. I shouldn’t have to go looking for it!” Or worse, “Nothing a woman could compose nowadays could compare to the geniuses like Beethoven and Bach! They are standard pieces/composers for a reason!” 

I’m here to set the record straight. 

There are beautiful, gorgeous, masterful works of art created by women in every field, every genre, every style. 

All you have to do is look and listen, and you will find true treasures. 

I won’t deep dive too far into the myth of the musical canon in this installment (but if you would like to have your mind blown on the subject, check out Marcia Citron’s Gender and the Musical Canon). 

 I’m writing this blog to share the gems I have found in my quest to expand my knowledge of the repertoire, highlight the amazing female musicians who have paved the way for me to become the performer I am today, and just bring a general awareness of the many, many ways women are contributing to the worlds of music and of horn. 

 I hope you enjoy this journey with me!

I would be remiss if I didn’t thank all of the incredible people (women and men alike!) who have supported me as I start this project; it gives me hope that we can change the landscape of the repertoire and open the classical world up just a little bit more. 

 A special thanks to the fabulous and talented ladies Alyssa Cherson and Emily Mehigh for brainstorming titles for this blog late on a Sunday night, and full credit for the name Horn Becomes Her goes to Emily!!

Thank you for reading!