Significa #7

ANSWERS

1. Name the hornist, known for her driven sound and frequent, but very musically executed, breaths. She has lived and played in both Europe and the U.S.. She is adored by the largest following of female hornists that I have ever seen for anyone. Interestingly, at one time in her career, the first chair player of her (European) orchestra was openly chagrined at her growing notoriety [over his] and quite blatantly referred to her as (paraphrased) asecondary player. She is now a "household name" as a hornist and that first-chair player is, well...even I can't remember his name!

   Froydis Ree Wekre

2. What is the name of the current first-chair hornist in the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (U.K. not Alabama)?

   Claire Briggs

3. Name the well known American first-chair hornist who used to play with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and was, at one time, married to the esteemed hornist, John Cerminaro.

   Robin Graham

4. This well known hornist has been a fixture in the Chicago horn scene for as long as I can remember. She is also a well known agent for Holton. What is her name?

   Ethel Merker

5. Another rising female hornist from the Chicago horn scene currently recordings and making the "circuit" as a horn clinician. What is her name?

   Gail Williams

6. This hornist went to Manhattan School of Music, studied with Clarendon Van Norman, went to Israel to play in the Jerusalem Symphony for a while. She has been Principal Horn of the New Jersey Symphony and she is very active in ICSOM. She is currently working on a book, so I understand. Who is this mystery woman?

   Cindy Lewis

7. What is the name of the person that this brief biography fits: his conductor's claim to fame is more as a female conductor activist, pioneer, trailblazer, than as a musician. In fact, sadly, I couldn't even find her listed in Grove's. She spent her life crusading to get herself a major symphony orchestra to conduct but had a very tough go of it for many reasons. Virtually everywhere she went her musicianship was severely criticized, she had an extremely frumpy and dowdy appearance (she looked like Golda Maier) and she was not taken seriously because, as everyone thought at the time, conductors and barbeque'rs just had to be male to be good. Interestingly, throughout her life, she tried to sell the idea of a female conductor (herself) to boards of directors arguing that a Russian (Soviet) conductor of wide respect and fame in her country was female and the same chance should be given to herself in the U.S.. She did manage to organize and conduct at least two professional Women's Symphony Orchestras in the U.S that I know of, the most famous of which was in New York. She was an occasional guest conductor for some semi-major orchestras but never really succeeded in realizing her dream. As if that weren't enough, years after her death, this "famous female conductor from the U.S.S.R." was finally allowed to conduct elsewhere in the world. She turned out to be a he, with one of those unisex first names such as "Carol or Robin" in English.

   Antonia Brico (A VERY interesting story, ask any of our winners)

8. What famous conductor is also known as the "Great Impostor." (Do not answer this question with my name, I do not conduct) To answer this question you need to refer to biographies on him dated 1979 and later. Virtually everything written on this man (a wonderful conductor) previously has been disproven by modern investigative journalism. His name is now widely believed to be a fabrication, he sported a thick, affected, fake accent about which he was constantly questioned and chided. His previously reported birthplace, aristocratic bloodlines and musical training have all been effectively challenged. He styled his hair like a "conductor should look" and never gave the same story about his background to any interviewer. Some accounts say he also wrote letters to famous musicians and kept them for years with the intention that they be "discovered" when the time was right. For all those interested, this character makes about the best research/casual reading subject imaginable.

   Question(s): What are the (2) names that he used throughout his career (actually two spellings)? What is now believed to be his real name and country of origin?

   Leopold Stokowski
   Leopold Stokovski
   Leo Stokes
   Still Unproven-Theories are Small Town USA or England (sic)

9. We have all had our share of SNAFU's, players vomiting during performances, conductors tripping and falling etc., and have seen many of them in print recently in the "word from on high" thread. I think that, arguably, the mother of all SNAFU's happened years ago when the American Symphony Orchestra was on tour in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The famous conductor was interested in melding some local color into his concert series and did so by hiring a 150 person troupe of local "native" percussionists and musicians on latin instruments to give a combined performance with the orchestra. When they arrived for the "gig" all hell broke loose, why?

   To say this delicately and quoting the press historians exactly, the natives showed up "mother naked." Some clothes were hurriedly loaned from the symphony players suitcases. The conductor was the infamous Leo Stokes.

10. What major orchestra did George Szell nickname "Murder, Incorporated" and why?

    New York Philharmonic-They adored their own conductor, Toscannini, and terrorized guest conductors.

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