American Horn Quartet to Perform at Mansfield

The American Horn Quartet will give a concert and masterclass at Commonwealth University-Mansfield on Thursday, Feb. 15. 

The masterclass will be at 1 p.m. and the concert at 7:30 p.m. in Butler Music Center's Steadman Theatre. Both are free and open to the public. The masterclass is designed for collegiate horn ensembles and high school horn soloists. The concert will include two world premiere performances.

Entering its fourth decade, the American Horn Quartet continues to be unique in the field of brass chamber music. Their exuberant performances have brought audiences all over the world to their feet. In 1982, four American horn players who were working and residing in Europe met for the first time to explore the potential of the horn quartet, a chamber music formation with a surprisingly long tradition. They quickly began to supplement the existing repertoire with their own compositions and arrangements. 

The individual members of the AHQ — Kerry Turner, Kristina Mascher-Turner, Geoffrey Winter, and Denise Tryon — are all successful soloists in their own right, having won top international competitions in Geneva, Prague, New York, Passau, and Munich. To these accolades, they added top honors with the quartet at chamber music competitions in Barcs, Hungary (Philip Jones Competition), Brussels, and Tokyo.

Besides being featured at horn and brass festivals around the globe, the American Horn Quartet has established itself at regular chamber music concert series on the international circuit. They have also appeared as soloists with numerous symphony orchestras, among them the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Sinfonia Varsovia, Philharmonica Hungarica, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, the Brabants Orchestra of Eindhoven, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and the Bordeaux Aquitaine Symphony Orchestra in France.

Other highlights include performances at the Barbican in London, the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, an appearance with orchestra at the Tonhalle in Zürich, and recording collaborations with the horn sections of the New York Philharmonic and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.