Who's Who
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(Listed Alphabetically by last name)
Don Abernathy
Don A. Abernathy, has been a music educator in the public school, teaching in Utah since moving from Colorado in 2001. Retired since 2017, he now devotes more time to his considerable output in music composition and arranging. He received his two undergraduate degrees from The University of Northern Colorado, one in Music Education, and the other in Applied Music Performance on horn, studying with Professor Jack Herrick. With a teaching assistantship at The University of Oklahoma, Mr. Abernathy earned his Masters Degree in Music Education, Emphasis in Instrumental Conducting. He studied graduate horn with Dr. Eldon Matlick, Professor of Horn at O.U. Prior experiences in performance include the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra and Palm Beach Symphony (Florida), Brighton Symphony and Rochester Brass Consort (Rochester, N.Y.), Greeley Philharmonic and Colorado Springs Symphony (Colorado), Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and The Orchestra at Temple Square (Utah). Mr. Abernathy is currently a member of the Salt Lake Symphony Orchestra. He also performs on alphorn in Swiss Chorus Edelweiss, a non-profit cultural organization in Utah.
After moving to Utah, Mr. Abernathy organized a horn quartet (The Deseret Horn Quartet), which performed at various venues along the Wasatch Range. The quartet provided opportunities to premiere many new arrangements and original compositions by Mr. Abernathy written for horn ensemble, recording a limited edition CD of some of his more popular works. With over forty compositions (and counting), several music publishers, including Solid Wood Publishing and Mountain Horn Music, represent Mr. Abernathy. Professional memberships include the International Horn Society, American Bandmasters Association, Utah Music Educators Association, and NAfME, the National Association for Music Education.
Scott Dickson
Scott Dickson was born and raised in Salt Lake City. He began playing the trumpet in 4th grade and, when a sophomore in high school, he discovered that the horn was what he really loved. He switched to horn then and has never looked back. He has played horn in various organizations over the years. Scott is currently playing with the American West Symphony. He also plays with the Paradigm Chamber Orchestra. Scott has played in the show orchestras for many local theater productions including: The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Cinderella, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Beauty and the Beast, The King and I, Guys and Dolls, South Pacific and many others. He has also played in several operas at the University of Utah with the Utah Lyric Opera in recent years. Scott also played for several years with the Deseret Horn Quartet. He has substituted for the Salt Lake Symphony, Taylorsville Symphony and Draper Symphony. During High School and College he studied horn with Lynn Larsen and Ed Allen. Although he has not made music his profession, he has kept it as a hobby and is very grateful to be an amateur musician.
Scott attended the University of Utah where he earned a BS degree in Genetic Biology. While there he also studied music and played with the University Wind Ensemble and Concert Orchestra. After that he attended the University of Washington School of Dentistry where he earned his DDS degree. He has been practicing general dentistry in Salt Lake City since 1986.
Scott is married to a wonderful wife, Debbie and has 3 children, Lindsey, Elisa (married to Kade) and Brian ranging in age from 16 to 29. He is the proud grandfather of 2 grandsons; Kole and Brody.
Grant Kendall
Grant is a senior at Utah Valley University studying exercise science, and upon graduation plans to attend graduate school. He loves to play sports like tennis and basketball when he has a break from his studies.
Grant was born and raised in Orem, Utah and is the youngest of four boys.
Grant has played the french horn since he was thirteen. He fell in love with the beauty and the sound of the french horn when he first heard it played at his elementary school. He played all through school and performed with the All-State Orchestra during his senior year of high school. He continued to play during his freshmen year of college in UVU band and orchestra. He recently pulled it out and once again fell in love with the sound and the desire to play and be around others that play.
Larry Lowe (click link for bio)
Anita Miller
Anita D. Miller spent 17 years as a successful free lance horn player in New York City before coming to Salt Lake. She has played extra with New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra under such conductors as Lorin Maazel, James DuPriest and Kurt Masur. She also includes Utah Symphony, Utah Festival Opera, Connecticut Grand opera, Stamford Symphony, Hartford Symphony, New Haven Symphony, Harrisburg Symphony and New World Symphony among her many orchestral credits. As a soloist, she was featured at the Jeunese Musicales International Music Festival in Aberdeen, Scotland. In 2002, Ms. Miller as part of FIVE: A Woodwind Quintet made their New York Debut with a sold out concert at Weill Recital Hall. Other chamber groups Ms. Miller is worked with include Music Ameci, New York Big Brass, Solid Brass, Harmonie Ensemble, Utah Wind Symphony, and as part of the Red Bank Chamber Music Concert Series. Not limited to classical music, Ms. Miller has regularly performed on Broadway in such shows as Beauty and the Beast, The Phantom of the Opera, The Lion King, Spamalot and many others. In addition, she was a member of the in the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Show, the BMI Big Band and the Gotham Wind Symphony. Her many recordings include Broadway shows, chamber music, orchestral music, jazz, and several commercials. As an educator, Ms. Miller taught at the Music Advancement Program at The Juillard School and at The Fieldston School in New York. With her quintet, FIVE, she was awarded a Rural Residency Grant through Chamber Music America to give concerts and lectures throughout Maine. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School where she was a student of Jerome Ashby.
Steve Park
Steve is adjunct horn professor at Utah State University and plays in the faculty quintet "The Logan Canyon Winds". He has been an adjunct horn teacher at Weber State University, Southern Utah University and Dixie State College. In addition to teaching, Mr. Park is an active studio recording musician, plays in the pit orchestra for Ballet West, and is principal horn of the Orchestra at Temple Square which performs with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He is also principal horn of both the New American Philharmonic and The American Festival Orchestra. His solo horn playing can be heard on several Mormon Tabernacle Choir CDs including “Consider The Lilies”, “Sing, Choirs of Angels” and their latest CDs “Showtime!” and "Heaven‘s Song". He has been married for 35 years and has five children.
Steve has studied with Ed Allen, Robert Bonnevie, Chris Leuba, and Wayne Barrington.
Park graduated from Central Washington University in 1980 with a Bachelor of Arts in Music. He moved to Austin, Texas where he was graduate horn teaching assistant at the University of Texas at Austin for a year. He then moved to California and sold insurance and securities for 10 years. In 1992 he started teaching band in the Washington County School District at Dixie Middle School where he taught for six years followed by Dixie High School for two years. In 2001 he received his Masters Degree in Music Education from the University of Utah.
Steve started teaching at Ogden High School in the fall of 2000 and taught there until the spring of 2008. When he started, there were 38 students in band and 11 in orchestra. When he left there were over 100 in band and 50 in orchestra. His Symphonic Band and Symphony Orchestra routinely received Superior ratings at region and state festivals. The Symphony Orchestra was the top 3A orchestra at the state festival for the last 7 years he was there. They have also been the featured high school orchestra at the UMEA Convention in St. George, Utah. Ogden High’s Marching Band was the outstanding band in the AA Marching Band Division in 2005 and again in 2007. They placed second in 2006.
In the fall of 2008 Steve began teaching in the Davis School District at Kaysville Junior High School. His Advanced Band has qualified for the State of Utah Junior High School Band Festival each year since he has been there.
Steve has a popular Youtube channel with over 45 videos of classical and contemporary horn solos including several written for and premiered by him. He has more than 1500 subscribers and averages over 1000 hits per day. Here is a link to one of his Youtube videos.
Sean Raleigh grew up in West Valley City, Utah. He started playing the horn in the 5th grade and studied through high school with Linda Atkin. He performed with several honor bands and the Granite Youth Symphony. After graduating from Hunter High School, Sean went on to major in mathematics and music at Vanderbilt University where he studied horn with Joy Worland, then of the Nashville Symphony. After a hiatus from horn playing while he finished a Ph.D. in mathematics at U.C. San Diego, Sean returned to Utah where he now works as a professor of mathematics at Westminster College. Sean currently plays with the Salt Lake Symphony.
Sonja Reynolds (click link for bio)
Joey Tolen: I am the principal horn in the Lyceum philharmonic. I am a student but I also teach private lessons. I am in 12th grade.
Stephen Taylor: As a young person, I had the good fortune to study with Arthur Franz, a hornist with long performance experience and work in the recording and film industry in Los Angeles and Hollywood.
In college, I played with the BYU Chamber Orchestra and the Wind Symphony under Ralph Laycock, though I did not major in music.
A long hiatus followed graduation from college, but I began practicing a little while ago, and presently play with the UVU Community Band. Playing the horn brings me a great deal of enjoyment.
Emily Hagee: Originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Emily Hagee is honored to be the new 2nd horn of the Boise Philharmonic. In the fall of 2017, she moved to Salt Lake City after having lived in Berlin, Germany, and Boston since graduating from the University of Southern California (MM '13). She earned her bachelor's degree from the Eastman School of Music in 2011. For the past two summers, Emily has been a member of the Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre company in Logan, Utah. Previously she was in the pit orchestra for the Ohio Light Opera Company. Her other festival activities include the Atlantic Music Festival, the Music Academy of the West, and the Aspen Music Festival (brass quintet fellowship). As an orchestral musician, she has appeared with the Glens Falls Symphony, Cape Ann Symphony, Thousand Oaks Philharmonic, Los Angeles Jewish Symphony, American Youth Symphony and Orquesta de Baja in Tijuana, Mexico. Her primary horn teachers have been Darcy Hamlin, W. Peter Kurau, and Dr. Kristy Morrell. Emily has been a private horn instructor for eleven years and a private piano instructor for six years.Emily’s other interests include hiking with her husband, bass trombonist of the Utah Symphony David Hagee, reading, and baking.
Brad Taylor: My name is Brad Taylor. I am a student. I have been playing since sixth grade and now I’m in the eleventh grade. I attend South Sevier High School.