What do horn players do when they retire from the Grand Rapids Symphony? Apparently they make the world a better place for other horn players. The post-GRS careers of Karl Hill and Kevin Warren come to mind immediately. Upon leaving the GRS, Karl and Kevin turned their attention to creating instruments and mutes that are used around the world.

 

For over thirty years, the horn players of the Grand Rapids Symphony have played instruments made for them by Karl Hill, owner of Kortesmaki Horns. Karl turned to building horns as his primary career in the mid 1990s, after twenty years of serving as the GRS Second/Assistant Principal Hornist. We must note here that Karl is an incredibly private person. He would give you the shirt off of his back, but he shies away from publicity. For example, instead of advertising his business, Karl allows for his horns to speak for themselves. And they certainly do, in orchestras across the globe.

 

When Kevin Warren left the GRS, he started designing horn mutes that are 100% made of wood. The former Fourth Hornist of the GRS founded his business, Woodstop Mutes, about fifteen years ago, which combines Kevin's love for both the horn and woodworking. Visit his website for more information (https://www.woodstopmutes.com) and check out Kevin's recent interview for the International Horn Society's publication "The Horn Call" (https://www.woodstopmutes.com/ihs-the-horn-call-interview).

 

What is it about Karl's horns and Kevin's mutes that make them so appealing? GRSMA horn player Paul Austin remarks that "it's more than just supporting former colleagues or local businesses, which is always good practice and would want to do anyway. The horns and mutes made by Karl Hill and Kevin Warren are world-class and have brought international attention to Grand Rapids. I truly consider myself lucky to have such fine equipment at my disposal for performing in the GRS horn section. When I received my first mute from Kevin, the serial number was 007. Being a fan of James Bond, I thought that this coincidence was pretty cool. Then, when I ordered another type of mute that Kevin had just created, I asked to receive the seventh one as well, to create a set." 

 

Mary Beth Orr shared her moments of discovering Karl's horns before joining the GRS. "I used to play a well-known brand of horn that I loved because of the luxurious slurs and its warm sound. Then I played on a colleague's Kortesmaki horn. At the time, it was just like trying on a wedding dress you can't afford and you didn't check the price tag first. It sounded and felt amazing, but I was a very young freelancer with zero savings to even make the deposit. It had everything I loved about my other horn, but it was more responsive, more in tune with itself, and took as much air as I wanted to give and never bit back at me with resistance. I'm proud to say that my beloved Kortesmaki horn became my motivation to be an official grownup and got my first personal loan to get her. I had to say yes to that horn! Then, watching Karl work as he designed this horn to fit me perfectly was like watching something DaVinci-esque. He carefully observes and listens to you play his horn, studying you in the way a doctor tries to diagnose and an architect melds art with physics. The level of dedication to his craft is undoubtedly obvious, and I am so grateful to have one of his horns as my partner in my music career."

 

This month's GRS concerts of Mahler's Fourth Symphony will put Kortesmaki horns and Woodstop mutes to the test, as the composer really exploits the various timbres of the horn in all of his symphonies. https://www.grsymphony.org/mahler