Studio News
-Fall 2013 - The Horn Studio is proud to welcome our newest members: Ben Blackmon and Whitney Moses!
-Spring 2014 - Happy New Year! The Spring semester is going to be a busy one. The studio is planning to attend the Southeast Horn Workshop at UNC-Greensboro in March and will also be attending an Atlanta Symphony performance of Mahler 4. We're also gearing up for the 1st annual GRU Horn Day in April. Looks to be an exciting semester at GRU!
-March 7-9, 2014 - The Horn Studio attended the Southeast Horn Workshop at UNC-Greensboro. Everyone had a blast! It was so much fun to listen to some great performances and try out some really expensive horns. Also, Benjamin Blackmon, Freshman Horn Major, was able to compete in the Low Horn Mock Orchestral Audition.
-June 23-27, 2014 - GRU held its annual summer band camp, which was a huge success. We had 11 horns! 5 middle school students representing Harlem Middle, Lakeside Middle, and Stallings Island Middle Schools. We also had 6 high school students, all representing Evans High School. Everyone learned how to take a rotary valve apart, learned about mouthpieces, and received packets containing a lot helpful resources. We also performed on the chamber music recital. The high school students performed a very challenging horn sextet, Landsighting, while all horn students played my arrangement of The Misty Mountains from The Hobbit. We had a lot of fun, and I can't wait to do it again next summer.
-Dr. Johnson is excited to announce that he will also be teaching horn at USC Aiken and Presbyterian College beginning Fall 2014.
-August 30, 2014 - The GRU Horn Studio hosted the first Ascauga Horn Club meeting of the new academic year. We spent about two hours playing through some awesome horn choir music and everyone had a blast! The next meeting will be September 28 from 5-7 in Rm C1 of the FAC at GRU.
-Sophomore Ben Blackmon was recently invited to join the horn section of Savannah River Winds, a semi-professional wind ensemble based in Augusta, GA.
-Dr. Johnson is very proud of the hard work and dedication shown by his private students. Four of his middle students and one of his high school students will be participating in the GA District X Honor Band this year. Two of these five students will also be participating in the GA All-State Band. Another private student, from SC, placed third in her region.
-The GRU Orchestra will be performing selections from The Planets by Gustav Holst in April. This is a massive work and should prove to be an exciting concert!
-Congratulations to Sophomore Ben Blackmon on making the finals for the GRU Concerto Competition! Even though he didn't win, he was one of six students selected by the faculty to perform in the final round. We'll get it next year!
-The 2015 GRU Band Camp was a hug success. We had a total of 15 horns! Everyone enjoyed a week filled with a number of opportunities to make beautiful music. The week was highlighted by the high school horn choir performing Eric Ewazen's Legend of Sleeping Bear.
-On September 17, 2015, The Spanish Brass visited Augusta, thanks to the Harry Jacobs Chamber Society, and performed a recital at GRU. The following morning they presented a masterclass and worked with a few brass majors from GRU, including horn major, Ben Blackmon.
-On October 30, 2015, the horn studio and I took a trip to Georgia Southern to hear the world-renowned horn soloist, Eric Ruske. He performed a riveting recital that included the F. Strauss Nocturno, Intrada by Ketting, and several of Ruske's own arrangements.
January 2016 - Dr. Johnson is excited to announce that he is now on faculty with the InterHarmony International Music Festival and will be spending part of his summer in Italy this year!
-February 4, 2016 - Junior Horn Major Ben Blackmon was chosen as one of three winners of the Concerto Competition at Augusta University! He will be performing the Dukas Villanelle for Horn and Orchestra with the Augusta University Orchestra in April.