Jeffrey Agrell

 

Jeffrey Agrell is a “hornist for all seasons,” with his broad range of musical interests and abilities. He has played and taught the full gamut of horn literature including the repertoire for orchestra, opera, musicals, ballet, operetta, and chamber music while stretching personal artistic boundaries beyond the orchestra as a composer, writer, clinician, and solo performer. He joined the University of Iowa School of Music faculty as horn professor a decade ago after a first career as a symphony musician and has been very active as a guest artist and clinician, performing and giving workshops and presentations at state, regional, national, and international workshops, festivals, and conferences. He just finished a second term as a member of the Advisory Council of the International Horn Society, and has been a member of the faculty of the Asian Youth Orchestra (Hong Kong). His CD recordings include “Repercussions” (largely improvised pieces for horn and piano), “Side Show Tim” [Dane Records] with the improvising trio Cerberus (horn, tuba, trumpet), and “Mosaic” [MSR Classics] with Duende (horn, cello, piano), which has garnered rave reviews recently for its improvisations on medieval and Renaissance music. He has always been very interested in the creative process as evidenced in his long-time activities as a writer and a composer. He was on the editorial staffs of The Horn Call and the Brass Bulletin for many years and has some one hundred published articles to his credit. Currently he is the series editor for two regular Horn Call columns, “Technique Tips” and “The Creative Hornist.” As a composer, he has written many commissions for professional chamber music ensembles. His Rhythm Suite for Clarinet and Marimba won First Prize in the 2000 composition contest of the International Clarinet Association. Many of Jeffrey Agrell's works have appeared on CD and have been broadcast on radio and television nationally and internationally. Many of his works have been published and performed at contests and festivals worldwide. He is a member of the ASCAP and SUISA, respectively the American and Swiss composers’ rights societies.

Besides teaching standard horn repertoire, Jeffrey Agrell has been very interested in the expansion of technique and musicality offered by (nonjazz) improvisation, and he teaches a unique semester course in improvisation designed for classical musicians. He is in demand for workshops nationally and internationally in improvisation for classical musicians. His book, Improvisation Games for Classical Musicians (GIA Publications, 2007, 354 p) is the standard reference for nonjazz improvisation.
 His latest book is Improv Games for One Player (GIA, 50 p.), enables classical players to spice up their conventional technical routines with all sorts of creative variations and ideas. Later this year GIA will also publish Improvised Duets for Classical Musicians.

For more information on Jeffrey Agrell and University of Iowa Horn Studio, see www.uiowa.edu/~somhorn. This site also contains the most comprehensive set of (annotated) links on everything related to horn on the web, plus a lot more.

Jeff is married to Shari Rhoads, a pianist, opera coach and conductor who also teaches at UI. They have a daughter, Lili, who is a star athlete and also plays the horn. Jeff also plays jazz and classical guitar and dabbles with the mandolin, autoharp, banjo, and e-bass. He also collects and plays ethnic percussion instruments, enjoys doing cryptograms, crossword puzzles, playing Euchre and following the Iowa Hawkeye football team. He studied drama and performed Shakespeare in college and is a passionate movie buff. Despite all of this, he now claims his favorite musical activity is playing in the Moose Drool Quartet with Doug Hill, Lin Foulk, and Jesse McCormick at KBHC. We are looking forward to having Jeff back for both weeks of KBHC 2011!