Hosts
Jonas Thoms
Jonas Thoms is the Assistant Professor of Horn at West Virginia University. He has served on the applied faculty at the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music, Wright State University, the University of Evansville, and the MasterWorks Festival. He has presented and performed at numerous International Horn Symposia, regional workshops, and universities throughout the United States and has been published in The Horn Call.
Thoms has held positions in numerous regional orchestras and
performed as a substitute or extra player with the Cincinnati Symphony
and Pops Orchestra, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Dayton Philharmonic
Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Artosphere
Festival Orchestra, Atlantic Classical Orchestra, Cincinnati Ballet
Orchestra, Columbus Symphony Orchestra, concert:nova, Fort Wayne
Philharmonic, the Huang He Symphony Orchestra of Zhengzhou, China,
Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Syracuse
Symphony Orchestra/Symphony Syracuse, Toledo Symphony Orchestra, and
West Virginia Symphony Orchestra.
Thoms is a graduate from the Eastman School of Music (B.M.) and the
University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music (M.M), where he
served as the graduate assistant to the horn studio of Randy Gardner.
His primary teachers include W. Peter Kurau, Randy Gardner, Elizabeth
Freimuth, Kristy Morrell, Tom Sherwood, and Roger Kaza. He currently
serves as the West Virginia Representative of the International Horn
Society.
Albert Houde
musician, bringing his “standout horn playing” (Palm Beach Arts Paper) to audiences across the eastern United States for twenty years. Mr. Houde has been featured as a soloist with the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, Reading Symphony Orchestra, Allegro: The Chamber Orchestra of Lancaster, and the West Virginia University Symphony Orchestra. He has performed concerts with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, as guest Principal of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic and the Reading Symphony Orchestra, and spent nine seasons as Principal horn of the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra. Outside of performing, he teaches horn at Muskingum University and Marietta College, and has been a professional brass instrument repair technician since 2002.
Mr. Houde earned a Bachelor of Music from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, studying under renowned performer and pedagogue Randy Gardner, and a Master of Music from the Peabody Conservatory at The Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with Peter Landgren, former Associate Principal Horn of the Baltimore Symphony. He furthered his studies on respiratory function and sound production with David Fedderly, nationally-recognized expert on the subject and former Principal Tuba of the Baltimore Symphony. He has also worked with Juilliard-based performance psychologist Noa Kageyama, creator of The
Bulletproof Musician blog.
Mr. Houde is currently a DMA candidate at West Virginia University, where he is researching the music of noted 21 st century brass composer, Frank Gulino.
West Virginia University Horn Studio
The West Virginia University Horn Studio consists of undergraduate, masters, and doctoral students. Undergraduate students in the horn studio include majors in music education, music performance, music therapy, music industry, bachelor of arts in music, and music minors. Each student receives a weekly lesson, participates in horn studio class, and performs in the WVU Horn Ensemble. Performance majors and graduate students participate in a performance studio class focusing on orchestral excerpts from the standard repertoire. Additionally, horn students perform in the Symphony Orchestra, Wind Symphony, Symphonic Band, Chamber Winds, Graduate Woodwind Quintet, chamber music ensembles, and other ensembles within the School of Music.
All members of the horn studio play in the WVU Horn Ensemble, performing each semester on-campus and in the community. In 2019, the WVU Horn Ensemble performed a recital at the International Horn Symposium in Ghent, Belgium which included works by American composers and paid tribute to former WVU Horn Professor, Dr. Virginia Thompson. Each December they go caroling at the Rosenbaum Family House and perform a program of holiday works for the residents.
