Alan Goldman - Fall 1998

Born: Brooklyn, New York

Age: 64

Colleges: University of Memphis, Manhattan School of Music

Teachers: Miles Markusch, Gunther Schuller, Franzel, Forrest Stanley

First Job: Chattanooga Symphony, Principal Horn

Gutsiest Move: Starting an embouchure change the same time as having to perform the Beethoven Symphony #7!!

When did you start the horn and what event made you realize you wanted to play professionally: I started the horn in 10th grade after the band director told me I was going to play the French horn. He gave me a book with the fingerings in it and put me in a practice room for a couple of days. After that, I joined the band. My geometry teacher was tutoring me one day, and she pulled out a record, and it was Dennis Brain playing Mozart Horn Concerto #4. She played it for me, and it was a ray of sunlight.

What made you go back to New York: I moved to Memphis when I was eleven years old. One day the Metropolitan Opera came to Memphis, and my mom wanted me to go downtown and audition for a part in the opera as a spear holder. On my way down the hallway, I heard a horn player. I went toward the direction of the sound and saw Gunther warming up. He asked if I was a horn player, and I said yes. He said keep it up. He also said if I was ever in New York to come play for him. I took a trip to New York with a friend and auditioned for him, and he offered me a scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music. I studied with him for a year, and he told me to go out and get a job and that is when I won the job with the Chattanooga Symphony.

How did you end up in the Arkansas Symphony: After going to beauty school, I opened up my own beauty salon in Pine Bluff in 1960. This is after I had decided not to pursue horn playing professionally. I went to Little Rock and got to know the musicians there, and I helped organize the ASO. That is how it all started.

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