Historically, playing the French horn has been a male-dominated profession. But today, says Elizabeth Freimuth, newly appointed principal horn of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the majority of horn students in conservatories are women.
Freimuth, 32, a native of Pittsburgh, comes from San Francisco where she was principal horn with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra.
She is married to Ben Freimuth, bass clarinetist in the San Francisco Symphony, and lives in Kenwood and San Francisco.
We've been married seven years, and we've really only lived together three.
Disturbing the peace: In California, we did have the police show up - twice - to our house. I was practicing around 4 p.
m., and my husband practices around that same time. I was playing loud, but that's what I have to do.
I chose the horn because: My father is a trombone player who plays big band, jazz and he was my high school band director.
It's all about buzz: If you're not buzzing and if you're not producing the pitch here (touches her lips), it's not going to come out of the instrument. The instrument, really, is just the amplifier.
Great orchestral solos for horn: We have the second movement of Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, Ravel's "Pavane," all of the Richard Strauss tone poems, Mahler symphonies galore, Beethoven's Sixth, Seventh and Ninth, all the Brahms symphonies, Shostakovich's Fifth...
Getting in the zone: When I'm sitting onstage, and I have my big solo coming up, I'm just living in the moment and hearing what the other musicians are doing, leading up to that.
For fun: I recently got certified scuba diving. I love to hike in the summers.
...
I like HGTV kind of stuff, and I have four cats and a dog.
Best advice: My husband tells me, "Just be yourself." Principal horn in a major orchestra - there's an idea that a type goes along with that.
But I'm me. I'm doing what I dreamed to do. I've worked very hard to get to this point, but I'm not arrogant by nature.
I wear my heart on my sleeve.
What: The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Robert Porco, conductor; The May Festival Chorus; soloists Twyla Robinson, Kelly O'Connor, Stanford Olsen and William McGraw, in a program honoring Xavier University's 175th anniversary When: 8 p.m.
Friday and Saturday Where: Music Hall, 1241 Elm St.
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