Solo Coaching

During the camp week, you will receive two solo coaching sessions with a faculty member. We encourage you to choose a work for horn and piano, as we have world class faculty pianists; however, our solo coaches will gladly coach you on any solo selection. 

If you decide to attend both weeks of camp, please choose different solos for each week (or different movements of the same work). 

Solo coaching is provided to you regardless of whether you wish to perform a solo on one of the participant concerts. Please plan to use your solo coaching time to work on solo repertoire. 

Prior to camp, all participants must fill out the online Solo Repertoire Form and submit a high-quality PDF of the applicable piano accompaniment by May 1st. You may submit the PDF of your piano part to our Operations Director, Julie Gerhardt, at julie@horncamp.org. If your file size is too large to send via email, create a free Google Drive account (drive.google.com), upload the part to Google Drive, and use Google Drive to share the PDF with julie@horncamp.org.

Please be aware that you will only have time to work on one piece of solo repertoire per camp week.

Piano parts should have minimal pencil markings and be clear and easy to read. You will be asked to resubmit any part that is blurry or distorted due to poor scanning. If you use your phone to scan, please use a scanning app such as CamScanner or TurboScan.

Photographs of piano parts will not be accepted.

Links to IMSLP will not be accepted.

In addition to sending a scan in advance, please bring the original, complete score (bound, in hard copy) with you to camp, and be prepared to provide it to the pianist upon arrival. Do not plan to share digital scores with our accompanists, and do not bring photocopies. 

Please label your score with your name so that you may collect it at the end of your camp week(s).

Participants wishing to perform a solo that does not require piano accompaniment must also use the Solo Repertoire Form to submit repertoire information by May 1st.

Participant concerts at Kendall Betts Horn Camp include participant soloists from all backgrounds and ability levels in a supportive and enthusiastic environment. Any camper wishing to perform their solo on a participant concert must request a performance slot when they fill out the Solo Repertoire Form

Everyone requesting to perform will be put on one of our participant concerts and should expect to play live in concert while at camp. 

The evening programs and program orders will be created based on all who have chosen this option. If you do not request a performance slot on your Solo Repertoire Form, we cannot guarantee a performance slot for you during camp.  

If you wish to perform a solo on a participant concert, we ask that you adhere to the following guidelines:

  • Arrive at KBHC with your solo well-prepared. It is recommended that by the time you arrive at KBHC, that you will have been practicing your selection for at least a month. Your chosen repertoire should be well-rehearsed and performance-ready when you arrive at camp. Please choose repertoire that is well within your performance abilities. A well-executed performance will be much more rewarding than an overly-ambitious one.
  • If your solo requires a cadenza, please prepare a cadenza well in advance in order to incorporate it into your performance.
  • Often, multiple soloists will choose the same solo. For multi-movement works, we may compromise by having multiple participants “share” the solo, each playing different movements. If you would like to perform a multi-movement work, please indicate clearly which movement(s) you are prepared to play.
  • On a given performance, we prefer each camper to play no more than approximately 7 minutes of music, so please keep this in mind when deciding on repertoire. Most single-movement works and stand-alone movements of multi-movement works fall in this category. We may suggest cuts to ensure reasonable concert lengths if pieces exceed this time limit.  

Many solos are popular choices among horn players, and are therefore often chosen by multiple performers. If your first-choice selection is from the following list, you may consider another piece to avoid sharing the program with other performers playing the same piece. 

  • Mozart, Concerto No. 2
  • Mozart, Concerto No. 3
  • Mozart, Concerto No. 4
  • Neuling, Bagatelle
  • Saint-Saëns, Morceau de Concert
  • F. Strauss, Nocturno
  • R. Strauss, Concerto No. 1

Deadline for Solo Repertoire Form and piano parts: May 1

Not sure which solo repertoire to choose?

At Kendall Betts Horn Camp, we welcome solo selections from all ends of the spectrum, of all difficulty levels, everything from traditional standards to new compositions. If, however, you’d like to solo on a participant concert and need help deciding what to play, the following is a list of horn solos that are already within our faculty accompanist’s repertoire:

  • Beckel, Glass Bead Game
  • Beethoven, Sonata for Horn and Piano
  • Brahms, Sonata for Cello and Piano in E minor
  • Borroff, Sonata
  • Bozza, En Foret
  • Bozza, Sur les Cimes
  • Cherubini, Sonata No. 1
  • Cherubini, Sonata No. 2
  • Dukas, Villanelle
  • Glazunov, Reverie
  • Gliere, Concerto
  • Gliere, Intermezzo
  • J. Haydn, Concerto No. 1
  • J. Haydn, Concerto No. 2
  • B. Heiden, Sonata
  • Hindemith, Sonata for Horn and Piano in F major
  • Hindemith, Sonata for Alto Horn
  • Jacob, Concerto for Horn and Strings
  • Mozart, Concerti
  • Naigus, entire repertoire
  • Nelhybel, Scherzo Concertante
  • Neuling, Bagatelle
  • Pils, Tre Pezzi
  • Planel, Légende
  • Saint-Saëns, Morceau de Concert
  • Saint-Saëns, Romance
  • Schumann, Adagio and Allegro
  • Schumann, Fantasiestücke
  • F. Strauss Concerto
  • F. Strauss, Noctorno
  • F. Strauss, Thema und Variationen
  • R. Strauss, Concerto No. 1
  • R. Strauss, Concerto No. 2
  • Wilder, Sonata No. 3
You may also consider the following unaccompanied solo repertoire:
  • Arnold, Fantasy
  • Bach, Cello Suites
  • Berge, Horn-Lokk
  • Buyanovsky, Four Improvisations
  • Frackenpohl, Three Movements for Solo Horn
  • Hill, Three Soliloquies
  • Krol, Laudatio
  • Louel, Invention
  • Messiaen, Appel Interstellar
  • Persichetti, Parable

 

If you are interested in performing a work by a composer who is from an underrepresented group, here are a few websites which can guide you with this: