Three Lawrence University students won honors at the recent (Feb. 24-26) 2006 Midwest Horn Workshop, a regional workshop of the International Horn Society conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
Dan Severson, a freshman from Edina, Minn., earned first-place honors in the low horn orchestral excerpts competition. Anna Suechting, a sophomore from Elk Mound and Karen Oliver, a freshman from Lexington, Mass., both received second-place recognition in the solo horn and high horn orchestral excerpts competitions, respectively. All three students are horn performance majors in the studio of Associate Professor James DeCorsey.
“Lawrence was certainly well represented at this workshop by the performances of Dan, Anna and Karen,” said DeCorsey. “What really puts their accomplishments in perspective is the fact that many of the students they were competing against were upperclassmen and graduate students. Given their relative youth and lack of experience with the format, such early recognition bodes well for further competitive successes as their careers progress.”
Nearly 50 undergraduate as well as graduate horn students from eight states in the Upper Midwest competed in five different categories at the workshop. Participants in the solo competition performed one required piece and one work of their own choosing. Students who advanced to the finals then played a piece commissioned specifically for this workshop. Students in the orchestral competition performed six short excerpts selected from a wide range of standard orchestra repertoire. The competition was juried by a panel of well-known horn soloists and music professors.
