benefits with regard to tone and intonation. Overtone exercisesare not uncommon, but I think they're often linked largely withdevelopment ofthe altissimo register. While that's absolutely thecase, I think it's far more valuable to view them primarily as atool for tone development.

Could you briefly explain what those kinds of exercises entailwhile you're in the practice room?

In order to get the consistency I think is important I'll makesure I'm doing four perfect repetitions of each overtone. I willpractice octave overtones starting on low B-flat and workingup chromatically, in groups offour. Then I'll go back down to afingered low B-flat and practice the second overtone, which isgoing up an octave and a fifth. Then after four repetitions of that,while still holding the low B-flat fingering, I'll practice movingfrom the first overtone to the second overtone, and then work thatsequence up chromatically. You can also, following that same pat-tern, maintain the low fingering and work in the third overtoneas well, and so on.

Wagner went on to say, "(Horner's) vibrato fluctuates with theintensity of the music." What advice do you have for students asthey begin to work on developing a warm vibrato?

I typically use less vibrato than the average player. The mainadvice I have is to listen to great string players as well as greatopera singers. You're not going to hear a lot of constant vibrato inthose performances which sometimes becomes a characteristic ofclassical saxophone. In listening to and studying players and re-cordings ofthat caliber, you learn how to apply vibrato musically.

Wagner also wrote, "the phrases of this'Scherzo' spin beautifully from his saxo-phone." As far as phrasing goes, are youinfluenced more by instrumentalists orvocalists?

I'm not sure Imake a distinction as Ilisten. Ijust tend to hear a voice as anotherinstrument. I guess that's why I can neverremember lyrics.

Matt said in an interview he doesn't wanthis music to fall into traditional stereo-typical grooves that each instrument getspegged into by so many composers. Whatare the elements he writes that you findto not be stereotypical of most saxophonemusic?

I would say his tonality and his romanti-cism are the two big characteristics youdon't typically find in new saxophone mu-sic. Most new saxophone music tends to bemore atonal, more experimental and moreavant-garde, and it's just a coincidencethat the music Matt writes and the musicI'm interested in playing are the oppositeof that. I think there is a danger, especiallyin academic circles, of his music being writ-ten off as being easy or simple. The otherthing that seems atypical, to me, is Matt'sromanticism. I think that has opened thedoor for us to have a broader audienceappeal, so we approached the CD project,both musically and from a marketingstandpoint, with almost a pop sensibility.

Saxophone Journal

When you listen to Matt's music, really listen to it, even withrespect to the long phrases, you can hear just how difficult it actu-ally is.

You're right, it's actually very hard. I have students who playthe "Serenade" a lot and his "Adagio" and because of the no-tational characteristics we discussed before, they become veryfrustrated, especially after hearing the CD, in trying to play it theway they hear it in relation to what is on the page.

In the composition for solo saxophone "Serenade For Solo AltoSaxophone," Matt says the visual image he had in his mind ashe was composing the work came from Cyrano de Bergerac whereRoxanne is serenaded. He also said, in order to keep his mindon the concept of tender admiration, he held firm to this visualconcept. In transferring the written notes to your performance ofthe work, does it help you to also keep this visual image in mindas you perform and if so how are you able to do this?In reviewing the liner notes for this interview Iwondered if

this might come up. I really don't use a visual in my playing. IfI use any visual at all it's something abstract. There might be acertain color or shape I'm going for in an attack on a note or in acertain phrase, but it's nothing that is distinct or literal.

When you work unaccompanied do you change your mindset, fromwhen you work with piano accompaniment, as you prepare toperform?

The biggest difference in mind set has to do with endurance.The "Serenade" is, by far, the most difficult piece on the albumto perform; from a strength of chops standpoint you really have

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to be in peak shape to play comfortably and convincingly bythe end of the piece. Playing solo is always a different mindsetthan playing with someone else. I think much of the saxophonerepertoire is really duo music and not a situation where there is asoloist and an accompanist. I'm very fortunate to be able to playwith Elizabeth Avery, who is such a wonderful pianist. When I'mplaying with her I'm always listening for what's going on and I'mtrying to play inside the piano, in other words I want to makesure I'm dovetailing my phrases with the piano, literally insideand outside of the piano's lines. When you're soloing, playing un-accompanied, all of your mental energies can be devoted to yourown playing.

The Finale of the "Grand Sonata For Alto Saxophone And Piano"has a number of really long phrases that while they may soundeasy, are in fact anything but. What advice do you give your stu-dents to help them properly perform music with exceedingly longphrases?

From a very practical standpoint the big thing to determine iswhen they can get that big huge breath of air that allows them tosurvive until the end of the phrase. That's a big one. I joke aboutthat being purely a survival mechanism but you really do have tohave air and comfort in order to make a phrase work the way it'ssupposed to. A big part is knowing how to control the breathingwithin the phrase. There is never going to be a phrase that is solong that it's unplayable so therefore it's just a question of gettingthat breath. Sometimes students err on the side of not takingenough breaths, but music, and the audience, needs to breathe.If you were to look at the sheet music of that movement, or reallyany of these pieces, you'll find I'm taking more beats of rest thanare written; I hear it that way and it works musically that way,and allows the phrases, as well as the human being, to get someoxygen.

Dealing with nerves is something all successful musicians don'tnecessarily beat, but they do find ways to deal with them in a posi-tive manner. As I was listening to your excellent Live At SteinwayHall recording I was wondering what technique you've found to bemost successful in order to be as free and as in the moment as youare when you perform live?

That's a great question because it's such an important issueand, as you said, everybody deals with this. I have students whoget concerned because every time they perform they get ner-vous. Of course, as you say, everybody does. The most effectivetechnique I've found to work is visualization. That actually cameto my attention in watching an lMAX film on Michael Jordan.He talked about how in order to perform to his peak potentialhe would visualize the scenario of a championship game so thatwhen he actually got out on the court it was not the first timehe had experienced that kind of a roar from the crowd. I do thatsame thing, whether on the night before a performance or on theafternoon of a performance. I also, hopefully, can perform in aconcert hall I've been in before; at least walked on stage while it'sempty. I think about the lights going down and the sound of thesilence that always engenders, and my hands will actually get alittle sweaty that way, but it does make it easier when it's timeto actually walk out on stage for real. I've gotten to the point,somehow, and I'm pleased I've gotten to this point, where I canbe really nervous the day before or the week before, but when itcomes time for the lights to go down and I have to walk out on thestage I'm able to get inside the music and have fun with it. That'swhy we do music, to get to that place, so if you can't ever do thatin concert it would be a real struggle.

You're not just a classical saxophonist, but also cover a wide

variety of jazz and rock stylings as well. What advice do you havefor your collegiate saxophone students with regard to being able tocover all the bases once they've graduated?

There is so much work to do as a saxophone student that ifyou're going to make a real go at having commercial work be partof your career you've got to become highly competent on all thesaxophones, clarinet, flute, classical stylings, improvisation, thelanguage of jazz, the language of rock, etc. It's really an over-whelming amount of work and an overwhelming number of tasks.What I concentrate on with them, rather than emphasizing anattack on all ofthat, is to tell them to do one thing at a time; tobuild a solid foundation, to become a really good classical player,a good technical player and have a solid sense of musicality andartistry, as well the musical wisdom to expand upon. For therecord, I'm not someone who speaks jazz fluently. I can play in asection, but I don't hold myself out as someone who can improvisea straight-ahead bebop jazz solo.

You performed on Gretchen Peters' Halcyon album, which featuresyour soprano saxophone performance on "The Aviator's Song."Your solo playing on the tune is perhaps the best example I haveever heard how important the concept of "less is more" really is.The notes you play are so poignant and speak directly to not justthe lyric, but also her vocal quality. Can you tell the readers aboutthis project and how you came to be associated with it?

I knew Gretchen's producer through my job at the time asDirector of Marketing and Operations for the Nashville ChamberOrchestra. Gretchen had been a guest artist. I was playing withan acoustic rock band, at the time, called Innisfree, with a Brit-ish singer-songwriter and in order to get some feedback on somerough tracks we had recorded. I met with Gretchen's producer. Itjust so happened that he was finishing the Halcyon album withher and was looking to add a saxophone on "The Aviator's Song,"in the vein of Wayne Shorter's playing with Joni Mitchell, and heliked what he heard of me on the Innisfree tracks. He sent me arough recording of "The Aviator's Song" and I mocked somethingup at home for him and he liked what he heard. A big goal ofmine, on that song, was to try to really get inside that song andthe lyric. For me it was really like word painting, with music, totry to craft something that was almost a musical commentary onthe lyric. I'm a huge fan of Gretchen Peters. Her voice and sing-ing is just beautiful.

You also perform on guitarist, vocalist, and singer-songwriterAaron Stayman's folkish Human Condition CD. How did thismusical association come about?

Aaron and I were actually high school classmates in Cooper-stown, New York; we both grew up there. We had a fusion bandwhen we were in high school called Larry Mondello, like theLeave It To Beaver character. After high school I went to Michi-gan and studied classical saxophone and Aaron went to AmherstCollege and studied Russian; he ended up going to Russia andspending time studying in a conservatory there and then spentsome time in the Peace Corps in Armenia. He met an Armeniansinger-songwriter and started to write contemporary folksongs.It was the first time Aaron had ever written songs with lyrics.Sometime after that he recorded the Human Condition album. Ithink everyone from Larry Mondello appears on that album; thedrummer and the bassist as well. It was a reunion of sorts, com-ing back together after having gone our separate ways.

You're associated with D'Addario / Rico reeds. How did that rela-tionship start and what does it entail today?

I love Rico Grand Concert Select reeds. I started playing themabout five years ago, and to me they are a perfect match with the

18 November/December 2009

piece I use, a Selmer S90. I've successfully switched a lot::,. dents over to those reeds with the same setup; it just works

s:211y well with all of the voicing exercises I've talked about,::.:;"ell as the tone I'm after. It's a great match. They're also anzznazingly consistent reed, and I can get most of them to play- t out of the box. What that means is that you can spend a lot

-- time working on reeds and a lot more time playing; which isreally important when you're busy, like most of us are. I had a lotmore time to work on reeds when I was in college than I do now.

Do you have any special advice you give to your students withregard. to maintaining reeds?

Honestly the biggest piece of advice I give them, and almost toa comical extent, is to use Rico Grand Concert select reeds. I'vesaid this to them long before I formally endorsed Rico. Other thanthat, obviously you have to be very careful around your reeds.There is nothing that is more irritating to me as a teacher than astudent coming in with a middle school jagged tipped reed; keepyour mouthpiece caps on and take care of your reeds.

I'm going to have to ask about your work with Larry The CableGuy. How did this come about?

I was working, at that time, in the Marketing Departmentof Warner Brothers Records in Nashville. There is a comedyimprint of Warner called Jack Records. I worked directly with hisproducer, Peter Strickland, and did a lot of production coordina-tion on Larry's Christmas album, as well as a couple of his otherprojects. That album had as its concept, akind of Christmas spectacular radio show. Itinvolved a lot of different voices. I read for apart, as did some ofthe others of us at War-ner, as well as some celebrities. I include iton my website and discography for a chuckle.

While you're mostly known for your classicalwork, you also have a definite and lyric im-provisatory style. When you were young howdid you study improvisation?

I did it, as most people do, by using bookslike Patterns For Jazz and trying to work bylearning scales and chords, as well as learn-ing patterns. I tried to learn that language.While that's an essential part ofthat learn-ing process, an equally important part oflearning any style is to listen to a lot of goodartists and how they play. When we learnEnglish we learn it from hearing our parentsspeak it, and a lot of the jazz greats learnedthat same way; at the feet of the masters.While I love listening to jazz and especiallyStan Getz, to be honest jazz has never beensomething that I pullout first when I go tomy CD collection. I'm really more likely topull out something like Billy Joel or NorahJones or Amos Lee. I think that's why, froma technical standpoint, my improvisatorystyle is more harmonically pop oriented thanjazz oriented. I do more pentatonic stuff thananything else, and I think that goes to showthat the language you listen to is going to beclosest to the language you speak.

You do a lot of studio work. What advicedo you have for saxophonists going into thestudio for the first time?

I think it's very similar to the advice I would give them with re-gard to playing on stage, that is to do whatever you have to do toget to the point where you can get inside the music so that you'redoing what you need to do musically without any thoughts to thefact that you're in a studio or on a concert stage, or wherever youare.

In addition to your work as a teacher and soloist, you are also theowner of Sound Artist Support, a company that creates marketingand booking support for independent artists and musicians. I'msure we could talk about this all day, but I was wondering if youcould share one piece of advice you've learned from your years ofexperience in this field for young artists as they try to embark onan independent performance career?

The main piece of advice I have is to figure out who you areartistically, what you want to do in life and what you wantyour life to look like. Sound Artist Support is the culminationof that search for me. In addition to working hard and develop-ing a skill set as a saxophone player, I had also, as I mentionedbefore, worked for Professor Sinta at the University of Michigan'sprogram at Interlochen, and through that work developed anadministrative skill set. Immediately out of college I got the jobwith the Nashville Chamber Orchestra as an administrator andloved doing it; but I also missed having the time to concentrateon my musician side. I left that orchestra to become a freelanceteacher and player for a few years because I felt drawn to becomemore involved in commercial music. After a few years of being

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independent I had an opportunity to work at Warner Brothers inpublicity and marketing, so I then did that for four years.Through that I learned a lot and met a lot of people, but onceagain I came to a point where I wasn't doing everything that Iwanted to do professionally. I had always been searching for thatelusive way to combine those things; to essentially be the artistI wanted to be and make the living I needed to make. Those twothings, for most people, are not the same thing, but I was reallyintent on finding a way to do something I loved to do every daywhether that meant playing on a singer-songwriter album ordeveloping a marketing concept for an artist. Towards the endof my time at Warner Brothers I began to think, without anyparameters, about what I could do that would give me everythingI wanted.I met with a bunch of people I knew and one ofthose meetingswas with Gretchen Peters. We were talking and she made thepoint that with so many artists doing their thing without thesupport of a big label or management firm, there were a lot ofpeople who were in need of jack-of-all-trades help with businessside of their art. A light bulb went on for me because I had, in mycareer, developed a diverse set of skills. I met with more peopleand the concept of providing a custom service to give differentartists different things according to their needs started to grow.About six months later I left Warner and started Sound ArtistSupport. Now I spend a day a week as a saxophone professor anda number of hours marketing my album and also working on abunch of other singer-songwriters' and musicians' projects. Forexample, I book saxophonist Jeff Coffin, from Bela Fleck & theFlecktones and The Dave Matthews Band, for his solo shows andclinics. This career has allowed me to do all of the different thingsI've always wanted to do, and I'm really excited about that. So inconclusion, think about what it is you really want to do and keepyour mind open to the possibility that that particular scenariomay not even exist - you may have to create it yourself.

How important is it to have your own website as we start the 21"century?

To me it's a big credibility thing. There is the question ofwhether you can get away with just having a MySpace site versusa dot com site, and while this may just be personal preference Ifeel a dot com site is a big deal from a credibility angle. The mainthing is having a window for fans to get information on art-ists they like. More and more fans are able to have more accessthrough MySpace and other websites to their artists to the pointwhere fans expect to see photos of the artist in the studio andbackstage interviews, as well as all sorts of stuff they wouldn'thave had access to previously. It's important to find ways to sharethis information with people in addition to the education andthoughts you can share through those portals.

What element do you see most lacking in high school saxophon-ists as they come to college as freshmen that they should work onmore?

I think, as mature a concept as it is, that I would like to seemore students come into college having thought more about theirartistic direction. The question I most often ask freshman is,"Why are you here, why do you want to study saxophone, what isthere about the saxophone that makes you feel like you need todo this?" Honestly, it's such an impractical thing to do that youmight as well have a good answer to this question. I would neverdiscourage anyone who needed to do music, and I was someonewho needed to do it. Practicality wasn't an issue because I neededto study saxophone. I needed to get as good as I could and seewhat was going to happen, and I was lucky enough to have par-ents and teachers who were supportive of that. Some people come

in who liked band in high school and were good at saxophone, butthat's all they'd thought about. I think it would be great if peoplehad things they were passionately listening to, and at least somevery vague idea about where they wanted to go. That does notmean your direction can't change, but you need to have somesense that you understand that studying saxophone and music isa different kind of studying than just going to college to hang out.

For many saxophonists, the first time they actually perform witha pianist is in college. What advice do you have for your studentswhen they start to collaborate with an accompanist?

To listen, and hopefully the work they've done in the practiceroom on their intonation and with a metronome and on theirtechnique, has been sufficient enough to get them to be able towork on ensemble. That's a really tricky thing, especially thefirst time you play with a piano player. Listening is key; it's soimportant to not bury your face in the music and hope the pianistcan catch you. You really have to develop that ensemble rapport.

As busy as you are, do you still find time to practice on a regularschedule?

Yes. I would love to say I practice two hours every day, but Ido have a seven month old baby and a new business and tonsof things going on. Every day I spend time on my saxophonecareer, but sometimes that involves the marketing of my albumor things like the photo shoot I had yesterday. As you get busieras an adult it's important to become more efficient as a practiceras well, so I do things that will keep me in shape like voicingand scale routines. I also spend time just playing things like theBach's First Cello Suite. I play things like that that touch on allthe areas, like musicality, intonation, tone, endurance, etc.

When you do collegiate and high school clinics is there a mainpoint you like to leave with the students?

The main points I tend to focus on are tone and musicality, aswell as those voicing exercises, which are a big focus of my clinics.I also talk about the importance of listening to other great artists,like violinists, cellists and singers.

What advice do you have for young saxophonists?I would stress the importance of practicing, but also making

sure you're having fun doing it. There is really no point in doingsomething you don't enjoy, especially when you're young. If it'snot fun think about why and see if there is something that can bedone about it. At the same time take it seriously and try to be thebest player you can be. §

Brian Horner'sSelected Discography & New World Premieres

To view Brian Homers Selected Discography and a list ofNew World Premieres of music, please go online to:www.dompub.com/download.html. Scroll down to bottom ofpage to the NovDec 2009 Saxophone Journal and click on link.

20 November/December 2009