A.Dip. (Glenn Gould School)
B.Mus (U of T)
Ariana is a horn player and teacher from Mississauga, Ontario. She has performed is an active soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player and has performed with groups such as the Etobicoke Philharmonic Orchestra and in festivals such as the Busan Maru International Music Festival in South Korea.
When she isn’t listening to music, in rehearsal or practicing she is probably cooking or wandering her neighbourhood for cats to befriend.
Get to know Ariana…Beyond the Bio!
Hobbies: Film, Politics, Philosophy, RuPauls Drag Race, Crossword Puzzles, trying to learn academic theory by watching youtube videos
Musical Influences: Hermann Baumann, Beethoven, Shostakovich, Lady GaGa, Brahms, Stravinsky, Mozart, Mahler, Kathleen Battle
Favourite food: free food
Least Favourite food: pickled herring
Favourite music: Western Classical, especially feature length symphonic works from the mid 19th century to present
Favourite song: Bad Romance by Lady GaGa
Favourite movie: Fantasia and Fantasia 2000
Favourite movie music: Lord of the Rings
Favourite musical theatre/opera: Fiddler on the Roof
Best quote from your teacher: “Make choices that reflect the person you want to be” – Gabriel Radford
Favourite quote: “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” – Homer Simpson’s yearbook quote
Favourite book: The Iron Heel by Jack London
Best Thing about teaching at ABC: Giving students tools they can use to nurture their voice as musicians and help them hone skills used in musical study that will be beneficial to them no matter where their musical journey takes them.
Latest Homework from Ariana
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Weekly Homework Post
Alan:
- Add air attacks to warmup
- do very specific isolated work on tricky passages
- slur tongued passages and vice versa as an exercise
- when playing in the high register use less air
Emma:
- Remember to use the same mouthpiece at school as you do at home
- Be aware of posture when playing: keep your feet flat on the ground, sit on the edge of your chair, make sure the angle of the leadpipe of your horn doesn’t get too steep
- Play things by ear
- Work on Bad Romance for next week
Happy Practicing!
Assignments for the week of January 13-19
Alan:
- Continue work on chromatic warmups exercises
- Practice your scales over a drone
- When the notes move up, aim airstream downward and vice versa
- Spend a couple of minutes of most practice days focusing on just starting notes
- Work on the German Dance from the Mason Jones book
Emma:
- Play the horn every day if possible, even if it only for 5 minutes
- Try to bring your horn into school so you have a bit more consistency. If this is not possible, make sure to at least use the same mouthpiece at school and at home
- Continue buzzing exercises
- if you are having trouble getting a clear sound use the spit valve trick
- Play things by ear, have part of your practice be fun exploration of the sounds you can make with the horn
Happy Practicing!
Preferred Books for Ariana’s Students
Click to buy them here, and they’ll come right to your house! What could be easier?
Solos for the French Horn Player
Sixty Selected Studies
Georg Kopprasch was born sometime before 1800, pursued a career as a horn player at least until 1832, and composed two sets of horn etudes which includes this set of 60 etudes, Op. 6. Most of the etudes focus on technical problems relating to the high range of the Horn. 46 pages.
200 New Melodic and Gradual Etudes
The Art of French Horn Playing
First to be published in the series was The Art of French Horn Playing by Philip Farkas, now Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Music at Indiana University. In 1956, when Summy-Birchard published Farkas’s book, he was a solo horn player for the Chicago Symphony and had held similar positions with other orchestras, including the Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, and Kansas City Conservatory, DePaul University, Northwestern University, and Roosevelt University in Chicago. The Art of French Horn Playing set the pattern, and other books in the series soon followed, offering help to students in learning to master their instruments and achieve their goals.
