2008 Southeast Horn Workshop

Randy Gardner

Randy C. Gardner is Professor of Horn and Chair of the Winds, Brass, and Percussion Department at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Prior to his 1996 appointment to the CCM faculty, he was Second Hornist of The Philadelphia Orchestra for more than twenty years under the batons of music directors Eugene Ormandy, Riccardo Muti, and Wolfgang Sawallisch.

Gardner earned the Bachelor of Music Degree with Distinction from Indiana University, where he was a student of Philip Farkas, and, before beginning his performance career in the Miami (FL) Philharmonic, he was Distinguished Professor Farkas̱ teaching assistant. Additional horn teachers included Christopher Leuba, Ethel Merker, and William Adam.

Randy Gardner held prior faculty positions with the Indiana University School of Music, Temple University’s Esther Boyer College of Music, New York State Summer School of the Arts, Philadelphia College of Bible, Trenton State College, New School of Music, and Luzerne (NY) Music Center. Randy is regularly a member of the Kendall Betts Horn Camp faculty. He has performed and presented masterclasses throughout the United States and at many international venues. Former students have gone on to performing and teaching careers in the US, Europe, Asia, Mexico, and South America.

In addition to being a featured or contributing artist at international and regional workshops of the International Horn Society, Gardner served on the IHS Advisory Council from 1998–2004. He currently serves on the Board of Advisors for the International Horn Competition of America. His recital at the Beijing 2000 Symposium included the premiere of his unaccompanied horn solo, WHY?!. Workshop masterclass presentations have covered Mastering the Horn’s Low Register, Achieving Peak Performance, Powerful Practice Techniques, Audition Preparation, Effective Approaches to Teaching and Learning to Play the Horn, and other topics.

Gardner’s International Opus method book, Mastering the Horn’s Low Register, is written for all hornists who wish to enjoy the many benefits that come with low register proficiency. Its pages comprehensively and systematically examine production and technique, then offer detailed preparation of thirty commonly required low and high horn excerpts that demand excellence in the low register. He was a performer and co-producer for the Summit Records CD: Shared Reflections, The Legacy of Philip Farkas, and he has written for The Horn Call.

Randy Gardner is an active recitalist and chamber musician, a member of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, and a free-lance orchestral hornist with Cincinnati Symphony/Pops Orchestra and The Philadelphia Orchestra. He has also performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

Outside of music, Randy enjoys spending time with his wife, Barbara, and their three sons. His interests include fishing and camping, sports, reading, church/community activism, and short wave radio listening. An eternal optimist, he is a life-long Chicago Cubs fan.

Eric Ruske

Horn soloist Eric Ruske has established himself as an artist of international acclaim. Named Associate Principal Horn of The Cleveland Orchestra at the age of 20, he also toured and recorded extensively during his six-year tenure as hornist of the Empire Brass Quintet. His impressive solo career began when he won the 1986 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, First Prize in the 1987 American Horn Competition, and in 1988, the highest prize in the Concours International d’Interprétation Musicale in Reims, France.

Of his recording of the complete Mozart Concerti with Sir Charles Mackerras and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the New York Times stated, “Mr. Ruske’s approach, firmly positioned with the boundaries of balance, coherence and good taste that govern the Classical Style, enchants by virtue of its confidence, imagination and ebullient virtuosity.” Performances as soloist include appearances with the Baltimore Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Shanghai Radio Broadcast Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Jacksonville Symphony, the European Camerata, the San Diego Symphony, the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Kansas City Symphony, the Seoul Philharmonic and a tour with the Israel Chamber Orchestra throughout Israel. His recitals have been presented in venues such as the Louvre in Paris, the 92nd Street Y in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Duke’s Hall in London, and the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

An active chamber musician, he has appeared with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, the Moab Music Festival, the Newport Music Festival, the Spoleto Festival, the Festival de Musique in St. Barthélemy, the OK Mozart International Festival, the Evian Festival, La Musica in Sarasota, Bargemusic in Brooklyn, Music from Angel Fire, the Boston Chamber Music Society, and the Festival Pablo Casals both in Puerto Rico and in France. Mr. Ruske is in great demand as a teacher and clinician, and in addition to having given master classes at over one hundred universities and conservatories in the United States, he has taught at the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, the Tokyo College of Music, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and the College of Music at Seoul National University.

In February, 2007 Mr. Ruske released his fourth solo recording on the Albany Records label, a collection of unaccompanied horn repertoire entitled Just me and my horn. Previously, he recorded two discs of virtuoso transcriptions for horn and piano, The Classic Horn and Virtuoso Music for Horn and Piano, and also The Romantic Horn Concerti, a complete recording of the Strauss and Glière horn concerti. He made the world premiere recording of the Concierto Evocativo for horn and string orchestra by Roberto Sierra, and the disc of Mozart Concerti on Telarc. The numerous arrangements and transcriptions Mr. Ruske created for these recordings are now available from Cimarron Music Press. A student of Dale Clevenger and Eugene Chausow, he grew up in LaGrange, Illinois and is a graduate of Northwestern University. He has been the recipient of grants from the National Philanthropic Institute, the Saunders Foundation, the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, the International Institute of Education, and Boston University. An Associate Professor and member of the faculty of Boston University since 1990, Mr. Ruske also directs the Horn Seminar at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute.

Photo courtesy of Lisa Marie Mazzucco, New York, NY.