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
Eliza:
Warmup exercise: play the following pattern on a note of your choice (ie second line G), tap your foot throughout if that helps: whole note (4 beats) half rest (2 beats) whole note.
Continue work on Accidentally in Love from Shrek, make sure to use the proper fingerings (also in generally you should be using pencil to make markings like fingering, so you can correct any errors)
Continue to explore the different sounds on the horn by just noodling about your range, use steady air and when playing higher, aim air stream downward, and when moving lower pivot the airstream upward.
Work specifically on playing the C major chord: middle C, first line E, second line G. move between all three notes, then see if you can go smoothly from c to g.
Happy Practicing!
Weekly Homework Post
Eliza:
Keep up the good work! Practice every day, if only for five minutes.
In addition to playing your horn, when you can take time to practice rhythms by clapping, and to sing.
Maintain good posture whenever you play: feet on the floor, sit on the edge of your seat, have the edge of your bell on your leg
Work on the Shrek music, especially on the bars I have marked.
Start work on Also Sprach Zarathustra.
Happy Practicing!
Weekly Homework Post
Emma:
Don’t get discouraged! trying and failing is an essential part of learning. You have great musical ability and have improved significantly overall in the last couple of months. Keep working at it!
Use good posture! remember to sit at the edge of your chair with your feet flat on the ground. Try to take in deep breaths, through your mouth.
As part of your warmup/ practice routine play a C major arpeggio (middle C, first line E, second line G). keep the air moving forward through the notes, picture the driving through the rainbow item cubes in Mario Kart. Continue using long tones in your warmup.
Work on your music from school, pay special attention to the quality of repeated articulation in “Common Denominator”
Here is the opening horn line from Schubert Nine, first in C (so you can sing it or play in on a piano to get in in your ear) then in F to play on the horn (the one starting on written G). Listen to a recording then start looking at this! Bellow this is a fingering chart.
Happy Practicing!
Weekly Homework Post
Emma:
Be sure to play sitting at the edge of the chair with your feet flat on the floor. Keep your fingers on the keys, keep your right hand in the bell
Continue focusing on breathing deeper, more slowly, and through your mouth.
Continue working on the F major scale
1 0 T12 T1 T0 T12 T2 T0 T2 T12 T0 T1 T12 0 1
Before you play, take a few minutes to warmup with long tones and moving through your range
Remember to think of using less air for higher notes.
Next week: remember to bring your choir music
Continue work on Alouette from your book.
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.
