Horn Club
The activities of the WVU Horn Ensembles are supported by a recognized university student organization, the Horn Club of West Virginia University. The purpose of the organization is, according to its constitution, "tostrengthen and promote the WVU Horn Ensembles and, in accordance with the aims and purposes of the International Horn Society, promote 'knowledge about the Horn and its literature,' and 'promote communication among its players.'" The membership of the WVU Horn Club is open to hornists who are or who will become members of the International Horn Society and who participate in the WVU Horn Ensembles. The voting membership is limited to the club members who are WVU students.
The WVU Horn Ensembles have been presented at International Horn Workshops at the Eastman School of Music, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Western Michigan University, and Florida State University; and regional workshops at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga and Virginia Tech. In 1995, WVU hosted a Southeast Horn Workshop that attracted over 350 participants and featured Barry Tuckwell, Gail Williams, the American Horn Quartet, and many other artists, clinicians, and exhibitors. In addition to participating in professional conferences, the horn ensembles also give community service and other "outreach" performances.
Genevieve White, a student of Dr. Virginia Thompson, rounded out her freshman year by traveling to Lahti, Finland in August 2002 to perform in the invitational College Honorary Horn Choir conducted by the world-renowned horn soloist Hermann Baumann at the 34th International Horn Symposium. Other participants in the horn choir included students from Finland, Germany, Poland, Japan, and the USA Eastman School of Music, whose own horn choir performed at the symposium. While attending the symposium, Genna met and heard performances, lectures, and masterclasses by an amazing number of international artists from Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the USA, and even had a horn lessons with a Peruvian artist who performs with the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra in Brazil.
