Q&A with Brass Faculty Member Anne Howarth

Anne Howarth, assistant professor of horn, finds endless inspiration in chamber music—from interpreting traditional pieces by Mozart and Beethoven to commissioning brand new works by living composers. Though her teaching is rooted in traditional technique, Howarth brings a passion for new music to her teaching, and encourages her students to make “music of this time and place, in this context that we’re all living through.”

Howarth is a founding member and the current outreach director for Radius Ensemble, which was named Boston’s Best Classical Ensemble by the Improper Bostonian (2016), and won a Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming (2013). She is a senior member of the wind quintet Vento Chiaro and a core member of Juventas New Music Ensemble. She also holds principal horn chairs with the Lexington Symphony and Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra and has performed with the Boston, Portland, and Hartford symphony orchestras, as well as Boston Pops and Rhode Island Symphony.

What do you love about chamber music in particular, as opposed to playing in larger ensembles?

I love that everybody’s voice gets to be heard equally. It’s a democratic art form. And I love participating in selecting the music. I have a little bit more control over which music is getting performed or how performances are getting organized. There is a thrill of discovery in programming for chamber music, because part of the fun is the hunt for something that speaks to me. 

It’s a really intimate art form. So, it’s a great way to communicate closely with audience members. I do also love orchestral playing—there’s power in that, and there’s the ability to just immerse yourself, and to move and be moved. But chamber music is such a personal art form and communicates in such a personal way to the folks in the audience. 

You are passionate about performing new music. Why is that important to you?

I absolutely think it’s critical that we are creating music of this time and place, in this context that we’re all living through. It’s critical to hear the different voices that are happening in the conversation, especially when trying to get young people engaged in this classical music art form—which really needs a better name! A name is a boundary, in a way. It puts a limitation on things. And I think what’s really cool about commissioning new music, about playing new music, and about being involved in Boston Conservatory is that I don’t feel that sense of limit of what the instrument can be or what the music can be or what it can do or how it can speak in the world. Which is exciting! 

I do love giving voice to the moment, and I love playing the music of people who are alive and to whom I can talk about the music that they’re writing. There is a lot of great music written by folks who are no longer living—that’s 100 percent true. We have some wonderful chamber music by Mozart and by Beethoven and by others from those eras, but what the instrument could do in that time period was a lot more limited. The horn has evolved over time to be a more flexible and capable instrument. 

In recent years, you’ve commissioned some exciting new music for horn, including “Connect All. We All Connect.” (by Oliver Caplan MM '06 with lyrics by Barry Duncan) and “Canta la Sal” by Judith Shatin. How does commissioning help expand your musicality?

I really enjoy commissioning music, partly because I can collaborate with people who share interests with me and share musical values and a sense of creativity. Finding people who have a similar interest in exploration—and being a person who can support those folks and then promise them that I will perform the repertoire that they have created—it’s mutually beneficial. 

In the case of Oliver and of Judith, it really was a collaborative project. I would pick up the phone and say, “I love your music. This is what I’m interested in sharing with the world… What is it that’s inspiring you?” Because it’s really important to me that people's compositional voices are heard. Each person comes to the table with some ideas but also some openness. I don’t want to put too much structure or limitation on what I’m asking them to do. I’ve contacted a particular artist because I have fallen in love with their art. So, yeah, it’s a balance. 

You’re preparing students for a future in classical music. What does that look like to you? What do students need to know in order to be ready for that?

Well, I certainly don’t know what it looks like. It would help me [to know], too. But I think students need to have strong interpersonal skills so that they can work with each other, and they can work with composers, and they can work with venues, whether those are traditional venues or non-traditional. I think they need to be in touch with their own passion and their own voice so they can authentically bring into the world the music that is meaningful to them and that helps them connect. I think they need to be really well grounded in the tradition, to be honest. I think they need to have a solid base of skills. But I also think they need to have a sense of flexibility, and a sense of agency, and an understanding of [many] different musical environments. 

You may decide you don’t want to play in a symphonic orchestra, but you need to know how to take an audition for that so you understand that genre. You may not ever want to play in a big band, but it sure is going to help you if you have some sense of what that’s like. 

How do you approach teaching private lessons? In your experience, what creates a productive bond between teachers and students?

I think item number one is mutual respect. Unquestionably. We each come with our backgrounds and our interests and our strengths and our areas that need improvement, and we both need to show up for each other in that way. My teaching is grounded in tradition and in fundamental skills—really being able to play the horn solidly—because then you can do whatever you want. And that comes in combination with the students’ musical interests. Do they have interests in specific styles of music, genres of music, things they’d like to try? 

Yes, we all have to hit major points in music history, but also how can I help nurture their creativity? I like to say that my job is to make myself obsolete when it comes to each particular student. That means you’re going to be able to be your own good teacher when you’ve left here.

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