2025 NORTHWEST ALPHORN WORKSHOP

Leading the faculty this year will be

 Dr. Natalie Douglass Grana.    

Dr. Grana is a hornist and educator based in Chicago, IL. Her integrative approach to teaching horn through singing and inner hearing has garnered international recognition, and she has worked with hundreds of students to develop fluency as hornists and as complete musicians.

Dr. Grana is currently on faculty at DePaul University, Loyola University, and Lake Forest College in Chicago and previously served as Assistant Professor of Horn and head of brass at Utah Valley University in Orem, UT.  Dr. Grana is an authority on inner hearing and solfege training and specializes in transferring these skills to horn performance. Her pedagogy and teaching philosophies are greatly inspired by Zoltan Kodály, and she spent the 2015-2016 academic year on a U.S. Fulbright Grant to the Kodály Institute of the Liszt Academy of Music in Kecskemét, Hungary. She has appeared at numerous International Horn Society Symposia and regional horn workshops, has been a keynote speaker and clinician for NAfME, and has served as a visiting academic at Oxford University in Oxford, UK. Her masterclasses are in demand for hornists, brass players, and music educators alike. She has been a guest artist at some of the world’s finest musical institutions, including the Royal Conservatoire of the Hague (The Hague, Netherlands), the Royal Academy of Music (London, UK), the San Francisco Conservatory and the New England Conservatory (Boston, MA). She has taught horn and led the musicianship curriculum at the renowned Kendall Betts Horn Camp since 2013. Her book, "A Singing Approach to Horn Playing," is available through Oxford University Press.
 

As a performer, Dr. Grana is hornist with the Gaudete Brass, a Chicago-based brass quintet that actively commissions new pieces and performs across the country. She additionally performs regularly with the Alloy Horn Quartet, also based in Chicago. Her performance experience also includes performing with the Chicago Philharmonic, Boston Brass, Quad Cities Symphony, Utah Symphony, Louisville Symphony, Kentucky Symphony, and Illinois Symphony. She has played in backup ensembles for musicians like Josh Groban, Idina Menzel, and Mannheim Steamroller. While in Utah, she also recorded musical soundtracks, video game music, and film scores for various recording studios in Salt Lake City. She has toured under the batons of Lorin Maazel and Krzysztof Penderecki and performed in venues across Germany, Austria, Poland, France, the Netherlands, Hungary, Switzerland, and Oman.

Grana is an enthusiastic proponent of the alphorn. She is on faculty at the Northwest Alphorn Workshop, the University of Nevada Lake Tahoe Alphorn Seminar, the Windy City Alphorn Workshop in Chicago, and the Alphorn Institute. She has performed and given masterclasses across the United States and abroad, including at the 2023 IHS Symposium in Montreal, with the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, and at the Festival International de Cor des Alpes in Nendaz, Switzerland. She is an alphornist with Salzburger Echo and the Performing Artist for Alpensong, a premier US alphorn retailer.

Dr. Grana holds a D.M.A. in Horn Performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and an MM in Horn Performance and BME in Instrumental Music Education from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Her principal teachers include Randy Gardner, Bernhard Scully, Thomas Jostlein, and Kazimerz Machala. She studied solfege and voice under Agnes Gerges-Gal and Renata Darazs of the Liszt Academy of Music, Hungary.

 Jim Hopson is a JUNO Award-nominated trombonist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and educator based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. He has been called a music industry ‘Game Changer’, and his body of work as a performer crosses every genre and includes tours and appearances (live & recorded) all over the world. A dedicated educator, he has taught private lessons and clinics to thousands of young musicians, and has conducted student ensembles of all ages and abilities. He is a first-call arranger for bands and orchestras throughout BC, and his arrangements have been featured on numerous albums, TV shows, and films. His two studio albums ‘West Coast Nights’ (2015) and ‘Generations’ (2018) are available on Bandcamp and in our Store. 

 Yannick Wey is a Senior Research Associate at the Competence Center for Music Education Research at Lucerne School of Music, Switzerland. He received a BA and an MA in Trumpet Performance from Zurich University of the Arts and a PhD in Musicology from the University of Innsbruck. In his PhD thesis, he analyzed the musical transcription of the Alpine yodel and related wordless song and the interactions between their oral and written traditions. His current projects inhabit the spaces between ethnography, music analysis, and performance. He plays the traditional wind instruments of the Alpine region, the Alphorn and Büchel. His research has appeared in Analytical Approaches to World Music, Music & Science, The Galpin Society Journal, Musicologist, and the Swiss Yearbook for Musicology. 

  Dr. DeMers is a distinguished expert and performer of the Alphorn, celebrated for her authentic contributions to the field. With 35 years of college teaching experience, she has significantly influenced the academic and musical communities. Her recent publication, "The Little Alphorn," has emerged as a significant milestone in Alphorn music literature. Dr. DeMers' pioneering research, completed in 1992 with the support of Pro Helvetia, the Swiss cultural administrator, culminated in the first comprehensive history of the Alphorn in English. Her exceptional talent was further recognized when she achieved second place in the Champion Solo category at the 2022 International Cor des Alpes Competition in Nendaz, Switzerland, following her impressive top 10% ranking at her debut in 2017.

Dr. DeMers’ performances have spanned diverse venues, from the Anaheim Disney Oktoberfest alongside members of the Midwest Alphorn Retreat to being a guest artist at the 2006 Sigma Alpha Iota national event and the Swiss Embassy for the opening of the IMAX Eiger documentary. Since 1991, she has accumulated significant expertise in conducting clinics and workshops at various symposiums and organizations. Her achievements extend beyond performances, as she and her Alphorn graced the covers of notable publications, such as AAA Magazine and Minnesota American Traveler. 

In 2009, Dr. DeMers, alongside founder John Griffith, established the Midwest Alphorn Retreat, where up to 25 Alphornists gather each summer to immerse themselves in Alphorn culture and music. Participants from the Midwest Alphorn Retreat have showcased their talents at events across the United States, Canada, and Switzerland. Dr. DeMers’ collaborative efforts with the International Horn Society and the Midwest Alphorn Retreat have led to numerous performances and commissioned compositions for multiple keyed Alphorns, including A Noble Calling. Her performances are accessible on platforms like YouTube and the MSR Classics label. 

Beyond her Alphorn pursuits, she boasts a rich musical background, having served as principal horn in various orchestras and currently holding the position of principal horn in the Lake Charles (Louisiana) Symphony. She also served as faculty and guest artist at the Assisi Performing Arts Music Festival in Assisi, Italy 2004-2023. Her international experiences include being a member of the Spoleto Festival USA and the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, from 1993 to 1998, along with appearances as a guest artist and principal horn soloist at the Mezzogiorno Concert Series in collaboration with Gian Carlo Menotti’s Festival of Two Worlds, Spoleto, Italy.