Jay Wadenpfuhl
Jay Starnes Wadenpfuhl (born June 7, 1950 in Beaumont , Texas , † June 19, 2010 in Boston , Massachusetts ) was an American horn player , composer and university professor.
Life and work
Wadenpfuhl grew up in Kirbyville , Jasper County . Born into a musical family, he began at the age of 15 in the Beaumont Symphony Orchestra and the Beaumont Civic Opera . His father was a trumpeter and taught high school and college bands. His mother played and taught piano and directed choirs. Her son studied at the University of Wisconsin – Madison , where he made both a bachelor's and master's degree in music. His major was French horn and his minor was composition. He received a Doctor of Musical Arts from North Texas State University .
He was then a member of the US Army Band in Washington , the Florida Philharmonic , the Fort Worth Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra . In 1981 he got a position as horn player with the Boston Symphonic Orchestra (BSO). In 1987 he became a professor at the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) and was soon teaching at Boston University .
Wadenpfuhl showed himself to be musically active across all genres. He composed for classical French horn and also as a songwriter for popular music and jazz. He recorded two albums with the NFB Horn Quartet (Riccardo Almeida, William Hoyt, David Kappy and Wadenpfuhl), which included compositions by students of the horn player John Barrows (1913–1974). The first of these was dedicated to the memory of Barrows and contained Wadenpfuhl's composition Tectonica (for eight horns and percussion). The second, Hornithology , was a collaboration with horn player Barry Tuckwell and contained Gunther Schuller's Five Pieces for Five Horns and Wadenpfuhl's Quartet Textures .
Wadenpfuhl toured Japan in 2000 with the Michel Legrand Jazz Orchestra and the Le Passe Muraille program . He also went on tour with Chuck Mangione and appeared on his albums Live at the Hollywood Bowl and Tarantella . In 1989, Wadenpfuhl performed the world premiere of William Thomas McKinley's Huntington Horn Concerto with John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra .
Wadenpfuhl died of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome at the age of 60 at Cambridge Hospital in Boston . He left behind a wife, Michelle Perry, who also plays French horn in several bands.
Discography
- Gallay, Hindemith, Wadenpfuhl: Horn Quartets by NFB Horn Quartet, Crystal Records 1993
- Hornithology , GM Recordings 1998
Web links
- Obituary from the New England Conservatory
- Jay Wadenpfuhl at the Cincinnati Conservatory
- Discogs profile of the artist
- Jay Wadenpfuhl (1950-2010) Short biography in the Horn Society
Individual evidence
- ↑ In Memoriam: Jay Wadenpfuhl, horn, BSO MEMBER 1981–2010 , accessed November 27, 2019
- ↑ Hornithology
- ↑ http://www.rfimusic.com/artist/jazz/michel-legrand/biography
- ↑ http://www.mangionemagic.com/discography/tarantella.htm
- ^ Obituary in the Bartlesville Examiner
- ↑ http://www.crystalrecords.com/horn.html
- ↑ http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=52590
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wadenpfuhl, Jay |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wadenpfuhl, Jay Starnes (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American horn player, composer and university professor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 7, 1950 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Beaumont , Texas |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 19, 2010 |
| Place of death | Boston , Massachusetts |