This list of horn players and pedagogues includes notable players of French horn, German horn, natural horn, Vienna horn, tenor (alto) horn, and alphorn.
The horn is used only rarely in jazz, but there have been a few notable players:
The French horn is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B♭ is the horn most often used by players in professional orchestras and bands, although the descant and triple horn have become increasingly popular. A musician who plays a horn is known as a horn player or hornist.
Andrew Downes was a British classical composer. He was head of the School of Composition and Creative Studies at Birmingham Conservatoire from 1992 until 2005. His compositions have been performed and broadcast internationally.
Peter Ruzicka is a German composer and conductor of classical music. He was director of the Hamburg State Opera, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Hamburg and the Salzburg Festival. Ruzicka was managing director and Intendant of the Salzburg Easter Festival and is professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. The list of his compositions includes numerous orchestral and chamber music works as well as the opera "Celan", about the poet Paul Celan, which was premiered in Dresden in 2001. His opera "Hölderlin" had its premiere at the Berlin State Opera in 2008. Ruzicka's third opera "Benjamin", about the philosopher Walter Benjamin, was written in 2015/16 for the Hamburg State Opera and premiered in 2018.
Ian Bousfield is an English musician who has held positions as Principal Trombone with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Hallé Orchestra. Also a pedagogue, Bousfield is an instructor in the music division at the Hochschule der Künste in Bern, Switzerland.
Professor Ifor James was a horn player and teacher, numbering among his pupils many future Principal Horns and horn professors at British music schools.
Hermann Rudolph Konrad Baumann was a German horn player who was a pioneer of the natural horn in the revival of both Baroque and Classical period music. He was a principal hornist of leading orchestras, and made an international career as a soloist. He made recordings such as Mozart's Horn Concertos on a natural horn with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the first recording of Ligeti's 1982 Horn Trio, which he had premiered. Baumann was professor of horn at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen from 1969 for around 30 years.
Walter Hilgers is a German tuba player and conductor. He performs worldwide as orchestral musician, soloist, academic music teacher, arranger and conductor.
Dale Clevenger was an American musician who was the Principal Horn of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1966 until his retirement in June, 2013. Before joining the CSO, he was a member of Leopold Stokowski's American Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony of the Air directed by Alfred Wallenstein. He was also principal horn of the Kansas City Philharmonic. Prior to his death, he taught horn at the Jacobs School of Music in Indiana University.
Elena Braslavsky is a pianist of Russian birth. Since the early 1980s, Braslavsky has had an active international performance career in both the concert and chamber music repertoire. Formerly a faculty member at the Juilliard School and the Mannes School of Music, Braslavsky currently serves on the piano faculty of the Mozarteum University of Salzburg.
Derek Gleeson is an Irish/American musician. Born in Dublin, Ireland. He is currently the music director and conductor of the Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra and has been the conductor at the Anna Livia Dublin International Opera Festival. Since 2012 Gleeson is also music director & conductor of the Rachmaninov Festival Orchestra. Since January 2016 Gleeson is Principal Guest Conductor or The Harbin Symphony Orchestra, Harbin, China. He also composes musical scores for film and television and of symphonic music for the concert hall.
Radek Baborák is a Czech conductor and French horn player.
Zdeněk Tylšar was a Czech horn player and music pedagogue, brother of hornist Bedřich Tylšar. He was the principal hornist and leader of the horn section with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra for almost 40 years. During his career, he created numerous recordings and performed worldwide.
Bedřich Tylšar is a Czech horn player and music pedagogue. He is the brother of hornist Zdeněk Tylšar, and a long-term member of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.
Kerry Turner is an American composer and horn player. Turner is a recognized name in the horn and brass industry. Turner’s major ensembles with whom he performs include the American Horn Quartet, the Virtuoso Horn Duo, and the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra. Turner has performed internationally as a soloist and clinician. Turner also sings tenor in a semi-professional octet.
Sarah Elizabeth Peel Willis is an American-born British-American French horn player. She is a member of the Berlin Philharmonic, and is a presenter of TV and online programs about classical music.
Stefan de Leval Jezierski is an American horn player and was the longest serving hornist of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
The German horn is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell, and in bands and orchestras is the most widely used of three types of horn, the other two being the French horn and the Vienna horn. Its use among professional players has become so universal that it is only in France and Vienna that any other kind of horn is used today. A musician who plays the German horn is called a horn player. The word "German" is used only to distinguish this instrument from the now-rare French and Viennese instruments. Although the expression "French horn" is still used colloquially in English for any orchestral horn, since the 1930s professional musicians and scholars have generally avoided this term in favour of just "horn". Vienna horns today are played only in Vienna, and are made only by Austrian firms. German horns, by contrast, are not all made by German manufacturers, nor are all French-style instruments made in France.
Kristina Fialová is a Czech classical violist. She is a graduate of the Brno Conservatory, the Music Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, and the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden.
Ondřej Vrabec is a Czech conductor and horn player, currently solo horn of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. From 2022 season he will become Chief Conductor of the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra.
Přemysl Vojta is a Czech horn player.
