This workshop will address issues that all performing artists face. We will cover natural responses to stress, dealing with fear, building courage, harnessing the mind, and recovering from mistakes. The workshop will be presented in a conversational format. At several points, students will be asked to participate in focused journaling, relaxation and centering routines, mental rehearsal, adversity training, and more. Participants will come away from the workshop with a deeper understanding of the factors involved in optimal performance, and a toolkit of new ideas to try and behaviors to practice. Participants should bring their instruments, a notebook and a pen or pencil.

Eli Epstein, veteran second horn of The Cleveland Orchestra and Horn Professor at New England Conservatory and Boston Conservatory at Berklee, will present MRI films that clearly illustrate horn biomechanics that may lead to healthy, sustainable careers.

Eli Epstein and Dr. Peter Iltis have been collaborating on the MRI Horn Study for over 6 years. Dr. Iltis is the chief researcher of this study at the MRI Lab at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry and Biomedical NMR Research in Göttingen, Germany. The research involves conducting high-speed, real-time magnetic resonance imaging of (1) elite horn players and (2) professional horn players who developed embouchure dystonia, performing on an MRI-compatible horn. The elite group includes Stefan Dohr, Andrej Just, Markus Mascuniitty, Fergus McWilliam, Stefan Leval-Jezierski, and Sarah Willis of the Berlin Philharmonic; Jeff Nelsen and Marie-Luise Neunecker, renowned horn soloists; and Eli Epstein, former member of the Cleveland Orchestra. Dr. Iltis and his team have collected and analyzed data that point to a consistent approach to horn biomechanics among the elite group, which sharply contrasts the biomechanics of the dystonic group. Further research has yielded new findings about horn technique and what really goes on inside the mouth and throat.

Some of these MRI films are accessible on the Internet, but what is lacking is a way to teach the biomechanics the elite group exhibits. Eli Epstein, who was one of the elite subjects in the study described above, will show how the methods set forth in his book, "Horn Playing from the Inside Out," can lead to the healthy, sustainable, and effective practices demonstrated in the elite group.

Joy Hodges is a horn player and teacher in the Washington, DC area. She is currently acting Second Horn of the Harrisburg Symphony in Pennsylvania. From 2017-2019 she played Fourth Horn in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and from 2012-2016 she performed as Second Horn in the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Christoph Eschenbach. Joy has been a member of the Vancouver Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Richmond Symphony, Albany Symphony, and New Haven Symphony. She regularly performs with the Harrisburg Symphony, Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, and other orchestras in the DC area. 

Joy spends her summers on the faculty of the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina, and spent 10 years teaching at Bar Harbor Brass Week in Maine. She has also been on the faculties of Towson University in Maryland and St. Mary's University in San Antonio, TX, as well as being Guest Professor of Horn at the University of Georgia in 2014-2015, and Guest Professor of Horn at Shenandoah University in the fall of 2021. She has a private horn studio in Alexandria, VA. 

Joy has a Master of Music in Orchestral Performance from Manhattan School of Music and a Bachelor of Music Education from The University of Georgia. Her teachers were Erik Ralske of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and Dr. Jean Martin-Williams at The University of Georgia.

joyhodgeshorn.com

Eli Epstein enjoys a multi-faceted career as performer, educator, conductor and author. Epstein was second horn of the Cleveland Orchestra (1987-2005), and horn professor at the Cleveland Institute of Music (1989-2005). He has appeared several times as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra.

Epstein is currently on faculty of New England Conservatory (NEC) and Boston Conservatory at Berklee. At NEC, Epstein is on the college faculty, NEC at Walnut Hill, and Brass Chair of the Preparatory School. Epstein's students hold positions as chamber musicians and teachers, and have won posts in more than 25 major orchestras in North America.

An active performer, Epstein has appeared on chamber programs at Jordan Hall, Severance Hall, Tanglewood, Philadelphia's Academy of Music, Kennedy Center, Music Academy of the West, where he was on faculty (2005-2013), and the Aspen Music Festival, where he served as principal horn of the Aspen Chamber Symphony (2000-2012). Epstein has collaborated with the Borromeo and Brentano String Quartets, and has been guest principal horn for the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Saint Louis Symphony. Epstein performs with the Boston Symphony Orchestra from time to time and has played on the BSO Community Chamber Concerts series.

Director of the NEC Youth Brass Ensemble since 2009, Epstein has conducted college ensembles at Boston Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, Longy School of Music, Music Academy of the West, NEC, and "El Sistema" in Venezuela.

Advocating the idea that music can be a meaningful and uplifting force in society, in 2009 Epstein won Grand Prize in the Entrepreneur the Arts Contest for his Inside Out Concerts, and appeared on "Heartbeat of America" with William Shatner. Drawing on years of experience as a performer, educator and entrepreneur, in 2013 Epstein joined the NEC Entrepreneurial Musicianship faculty to teach their survey course The Entrepreneurial Musician.

Epstein's book, "Horn Playing from the Inside Out, A Method for All Brass Musicians" (second edition published in 2014), was celebrated in the International Horn Society's Journal as "an overwhelmingly stimulating and productive treatise...its positive influence on the profession will be immediate and lasting."

Orchestral Excerpts for Low Horn, Epstein's album released in 2014, was acclaimed in the International Horn Society's Journal as "a sonic paragon, a rubric worthy of emulation by student and professional alike," and in "HornWorld" as "a perfect sequel to (Krebiehl's) original horn excerpts CD...you would be hard pressed to find more nuanced, musically substantial performances anywhere."