David Cooper French Horn: Welcome to the David Cooper | French Horn blog!: Welcome to the David Cooper | French Horn blog!
A box came in the mail today. It was about 2 feet long by 1 and a half feet high by 1 foot wide. I checked the shipping label and it was from Chicago. I opened up the box and rummaged through the packing peanuts and found a case the size of a bowling ball bag. I unzipped the case and saw a shinny brass bell sitting above a shinny new horn. Today is better than Christmas! There isn't a better feeling than getting a new horn, not just any horn, but a custom horn you have been waiting 6 years for!
Where do I start?! Two weeks ago I was getting ready to take a trip up to Chicago and every time I go out of town I always try to do a little something horn related. WELL... most of you that know me know that I usually go all the way when I do things so I set up a visit to Schilke music to see their mouthpiece factory and get my mouthpiece copied. I also set up a visit with famed Chicago Brass technician Ronald Pinc and the Legendary Steven W Lewis horn maker and designer for the Chicago Symphony horn section. Oh, and lastly a visit to the Lyric Opera of Chicago to see The Meistersinger dress rehearsal. All of this was to take place on my rare 3 day holiday from the Dallas Symphony and while trying to squeeze in a visit with my 7 mo old nephew and family up in Lansing, Mi.
My girlfriend Katie and I arrived in Chicago at 9:30 and as soon as we got our rental car we were off to see Ron Pinc. I took my Rauch horn in to Ron to have him take out a few dents and also to make a new leadpipe and a 3rd valve slide for my horn. I had heard from numerous horn players that his leadpipes and 3rd valve slides make the horn play superbly better. So we met Ron and he told us about working at Schilke music and how he got to hear Dale Clevenger from the CSO playing Jazz in nightclubs in that late 60s and 70s. The first thing I noticed about Ron's shop was that it was unbelievably clean. I had never seen a repair shop so clean and when I mentioned it to him he noted that he was needing to sweep the floor!Horn shops aren't supposed to be that clean!
After stopping by Ron Pinc shop we headed up to Evanston, IL to visit Steven Lewis. When we found his workshop there was a shiny 3 series BMW parked in front with the license plate that said SWL. I knew we were in the right spot!
When I had called Steve about a week ago he was really perplexed as to why I would want to visit him. My name had been on the waiting list for one of his horns since December 2007 when I came down to Chicago for my first lesson with Dale Clevenger. He said that my horn wasn't going to be ready until March or April and he doesn't let people watch him work. He said if he had time on the calendar the best he could do would be to take me out for a cup of coffee. I insisted that I wanted to visit him, and buy one of his mutes and also just play his horn. I really just wanted him to hear me play so he could make a horn specially for me like Carl Geyer used to but he said that he didn't do that and found that Geyer was a bit presumptuous to do that sort of thing.
Here I was in front of Steve Lewis' shop. As I walked in I was really impressed with all of the old horn related photographs on the walls. He had a life sized photo of the Chicago symphony horn section from the Solti days when Clevenger was just a young man on his wall. I asked him about his new location since I knew that he had just had to move from the foundry building near downtown Chicago. He said it was hard and it took about 2 years for his new home to feel complete but it was obvious now that his new location far exceeded the old space. He gave me the grand tour and showed me the machines and the new storage space that he added beautiful finished shelves to himself. He showed me some old mutes, one from Carl Geyer that was simply a spray painted black stone line mute! He also showed me a gourd mute from the old studio days in Hollywood from his teacher.
After the tour he let me try the two horns he had in the workshop, one was fabricated to his specifications in germany and the other was a horn that he had made for himself and had beautiful intricate hand engraving on it. I picked up the German made Lewis-Duerk Clevenger model and found myself immediately impressed with the sound. I really enjoyed playing this horn so much because of the response and the warmth. I was wondering if the hand made horn could really be much better. I picked up Steve's personal horn and gave that a blow and was instantly in love. This was no doubt a special horn and Steve had good reason to have kept it in the shop for so many years so that anyone who came to his shop would know what kind of work Steve did at his best. I just closed my eyes and played for a good 10 minutes finding the colors and the sound and place of each note. I played everything from Brandenburg to Mendelssohn Midsummer's Night's Dream to Tchaikovsky 5 to Mahler 3, which Steve told me that he played in Honolulu with Eric Ruske and Bill Vermeulen and a whole section of 8 players all on his horns!
After trying Steve's horn Steve took us out for lunch nearby. My girlfriend Katie hadn't eaten all day and was STARVING at this point. She had been such a good sport for putting up with all of the horn playing and horn stories as she is a ballerina and horn is as foreign to her as a plié is to me.
Steve told us over lunch how he went to the first ever horn convention and met Dale Clevenger. He told us about his first lesson with Mr. Clevenger and how he decided to come to Chicago and play in Chicago Civic and study horn with Mr. Clevenger. He told us about how he started working at Schilke and then how he apprenticed on horn making with Ukrainian master Jerry Lechniuk and how his first five horns he made were to go directly for to the Pittsburgh Symphony.
This was one of the most inspirational days I have ever had on the horn. I felt like I was meeting a living legend. Steve Lewis went above and beyond what I expected and loaned me his horn to take up to Michigan while my horn was in the shop. He told me that he would need it back first thing Monday morning and if I break it I buy it sort of thing and we were off to Michigan to visit family. I am so glad that I visited Steve Lewis and I will always remember my visit that day.
After my trip home to Lansing and after I returned Steven's personal horn Steve surprised me yet again and told me that he would have a horn ready for me before the before the European tour with the Dallas Symphony! He told me he hoped to see me down the street in the CSO someday and looked at it as an investment in my future!
I plan on holding him to it on his wonderful new horn that arrived in the mail today. It plays even better than I remember and it is beautifully made. I can't wait to perform my first concert on this wonderful new instrument!
Best part about it is I will always have a great story about my visit to Chicago and to Steve Lewis to think about every time I pick up my horn!
