Yuletide Horns - Meet our Carolers

Meet our Carolers

Laura Huggard, DMA

Dr. Huggard enjoys teaching and performing in Utah. Currently Laura maintains a studio in her home in Heber City, Utah and provides master classes throughout the state. Previously she has taught at Utah State University, Weber State University, Rutgers University, and BYU-Idaho as adjunct professor of horn. Laura has also enjoyed teaching in the K-12 music education classrooms of Idaho and New Jersey.

Laura is currently playing with the Orchestra at Temple Square with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Sego Lily Horn Quartet. Dr. Huggard’s orchestral accomplishments on the modern and historical hand horn include: the Albany Symphony, Garden State Philharmonic, The United States Coast Guard Band, Riverside Symphonia, Princeton Symphony, Princeton Pro Musica, The New Jersey Arts Collective, and the New Brunswick Chamber Orchestra. Laura was invited to perform at the International Horn Symposium in Valencia, Spain and enjoyed free lancing in New York City and Philadelphia.

Huggard is active as a recording artist in Salt Lake City and has recently worked with Disney, Paul Cardall, Jenny Oaks Baker, Shane Mickelson, and other television and audio book composers. Before relocating to Utah, Laura recorded for the Naxos label: Nicholas Fagello’s Concerto Sinfonico for Saxophone Quartet, for Musica Omnia with Publick Musick: Bach Missae Breves, and numerous wind band recordings on the Mark Custom Label with the Rutgers Wind Ensemble. Huggard also appeared with Ray Charles and the Raylets at the Trenton War Memorial for an NJN Television broadcast and DVD.

Wendy Koller

Wendy Koller graduated with a degree in French Horn Performance and Pedagogy from Brigham Young University, where she studied under Dr. Gaylen Hatton and Laurence Lowe. She has played with the South Suburban Symphony Orchestra in Colorado and the Garden State Philharmonic in New Jersey.

Wendy currently plays with the Sego Lily Horn Quartet, and is an active freelance player throughout Utah; including studio recording and performing with the Utah Metropolitan Ballet, Ballet West and the Utah Symphony. She has soloed with the American Heritage Choirs and Orchestra and the Millenial Choirs and Orchestra.

Wendy has taught private Horn lessons for more than 20 years and is a happily married mother of 4 boys.

Sonja Reynolds

Sonja Reynolds has 30 yrs of horn teaching experience, including over 20 yrs with the American Fork band programs. Boasting a studio of 40 private students and “grand-students” taught through her student teacher program, Sonja is in demand as an instructor, freelance artist, clinician and adjudicator throughout Utah and the Mountain West, and is an Educational Clinician for the Eastman Music Company.

Sonja attended Interlochen Arts Camp, completed a horn performance degree at Brigham Young University (2000) and has studied under such well-known instructors as Dr. Ellen Powley, Dr. Randy Faust, Laurence Lowe and Ronald Beitel.

View online tutorials by Sonja at Musician's ToolKit. Visit Sonja's website for further information.

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.

Paul Farnsworth

Paul Farnsworth started playing French horn as a seventh grader and excelled on the instrument

through his secondary school years. He played in all-state band and orchestra and the Mormon Youth

Symphony. He was a music Sterling Scholar finalist for the state of Utah. His horn teacher during these

formative years was Don Peterson, principal horn of the Utah Symphony. As he began his university

studies, he made the difficult decision to make chemistry his profession while keeping music as a life-

long avocation.

After a five-year break from the French horn while he completed his PhD and post-doctoral research, he

returned to Utah to join the chemistry faculty at Brigham Young University, and, more relevant to this

biography, joined the Utah Valley Symphony. Some valuable lessons from Laurence Lowe helped him

recover his playing form. He has played first or second horn in the Utah Valley Symphony since joining

the orchestra, and is currently the second horn. For several years he was a member of the Provo

Municipal Band, a forerunner of the Utah Premiere Brass.

Shortly before retiring from BYU, Paul indulged in a childhood dream of acquiring an alphorn, and he

now performs on that instrument with the Wasatch Alphorns and Salzburger Echo.

Scott Dickson

Scott Dickson began his music career in the 4 th grade playing the trumpet. Once in high school, he

quickly realized that there were far too many trumpet players and not enough horn players. He made

the switch and has never looked back. With early help from Lynn Larsen (2 nd Horn with the Utah

Symphony) he quickly made strides with his new instrument. He received a scholarship to play his horn

at the University of Utah and enjoyed playing in the Wind Ensemble and the Symphony Orchestra.

While at the University, he studied with Ed Allen (3 rd Horn with the Utah Symphony).

Over the years Scott has had the opportunity to play with many groups including: Salt Lake Repertory

Orchestra (precursor to the Salt Lake Symphony), The American West Symphony, The Salt Lake

Symphony, The Taylorsville Symphony, The Draper Philharmonic and Choral Society, The Millennial

Choirs and Orchestra and the Timpanogos Symphony Orchestra. He has also had the opportunity to play

in the pit orchestras for many community musicals in the Salt Lake Valley.

Scott recently retired from private dental practice after 36 years and is currently an Assistant Professor

on the faculty of the University of Utah School of Dentistry.

Stephen Bunker

Stephen Bunker began playing horn while in high school in Salt Lake City, where he studied with Lynn Larsen (2nd Horn in the Utah Symphony) and played with the Granite Youth Symphony Orchestra and Utah Youth Symphony.

While attending Brigham Young University he studied horn with Gaylen Hatton and Ellen Powley and actively played in numerous performing groups: Philharmonic, Wind Symphony, and Symphony Orchestra. He also played with Mormon Youth Symphony, the precursor to Orchestra at Temple Square.

Stephen is an elementary school teacher in Orem, Utah at Northridge Elementary, where he is famous for his Garden Hose Horn performances. He has played horn with the Draper Philharmonic and Choral Society and substituted with the Utah Valley Symphony. He currently studies horn with Kathy Colton and plays with the Eagle Mountain Symphony Orchestra and the Wasatch Alphorns.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse