Abigail Pack
I was born and raised in Roanoke, Virginia and went to East Carolina University for my undergraduate degree. I originally went to college for art because I wanted to be a high school art teacher! I loved to paint and learned a lot, but a future in public education as an art teacher was not to be (I just didn't have the talent).
As a young person, I also loved band! I joined band in the 8th grade, then went to high school and joined the marching band. I also joined the local youth orchestra and played in the high school concert band. I never intended to get a degree in music, but family encouraged me to audition for the school of music because I come from a musical family. I saw the writing on the wall and dropped the art major to pursue a music education degree because I loved the idea of teaching young people.
Music education was a great fit at that time because I learned more about teaching, but I wouldn't say I was ever a superstar horn player. See, I hadn't had any real training on the horn. I will never forget in the 8th grade, my mom handing me a little single horn in a case along with a cassette tape simply called "The Horn." I played this tape over and over again! I didn't have any music, so I transcribed Mozart's 3rd Horn Concerto onto some blank staff paper so that I could play along. I also held notes out as long as I could and timed myself to see if I could beat my own records (sounds like long tones, eh?).
I was self-taught until I took a few lessons, first with a trumpet player (this was a debacle and I learned many bad habits), then later with a local community horn player to get ready for college (which introduced me to a whole host of new bad habits). Fast-forward to college, where I played in the marching band for fun and sat last chair in the lowest band. Once the art degree became a wash (I simply didn't have enough talent),
I put all of my eggs in the music education basket. I taught summer high school band camp brass sectionals, private lessons and successfully completed 11 1/2 weeks of student teaching. I loved my college professors and the entire program because I learned so much, however, becoming a high school band director was not to be either. Why not? Because I didn't like standing on the podium leading, I wanted to sit in the horn section and help the horn section in particular by playing! It became crystal clear to me at that very moment that I wanted to be a player. I immediately started looking at graduate schools for horn performance.
Luckily, I had some very fantastic college professors give me some great advice about where to apply. Consequently, I received a teaching assistantship at the University of Iowa. Here, I taught all non-major horn lessons, horn methods, and helped run the studio and perform in place of my professor while she was on sabbatical. This was a tremendous experience. While a student there, I also won a job in a regional orchestra and began adjunct teaching horn lessons at a neighboring college.
Upon graduation I moved to Colorado to teach as adjunct faculty at Western State College and serve as a longterm substitute music teacher in the public schools there.
A future in collegiate teaching was fast becoming my dream although I loved to play too. I had already won jobs, was runner up in a competition, performed in an international music festival and learned and performed as solo E flat Tenor Horn in a professional brass band. It was a hard decision to leave all of the great things in Colorado, but I knew to seal-the-deal towards having my own studio some day, I would need to get a doctorate. My dream school was an easy decision - I applied, and was fortunate to become a teaching fellow at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. I knew that I had to study and learn from a great teaching mentor, and chose Douglas Hill (to read about this amazing man, click here).
During my final year of coursework there in 2001, I won the horn teaching position at James Madison University where I remained until 2008. I was personally invited by the music Dean at the time of University of North Carolina Greensboro to apply for their horn opening. I have happily continued to build my career at UNCG since 2008 teaching horn majors, minors, brass methods, brass literature, a fantastic horn choir, brass quintets, and chamber groups.
My playing and teaching career is long, deep and continues to grow!
i have played with, or held positions with, the Barton Symphony Orchestra, Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra, Des Moines Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival Orchestra, the Southwest Chamber Orchestra, the Opera Roanoke Orchestra, the Southeast Brass Quintet and the esteemed Monarch Brass. I continue to perform with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra as substitute utility horn, and substitute regularly with the Greensboro and Winston Salem Symphony Orchestras.
Past groups include the Iowa Brass Quintet, Western Slope Brass Band, and Massanutten Brass Band.
Other exciting performance and presentation highlights include the National Flute Association (Washington D.C. with the Montpelier Winds), the International Horn Symposium (University of Cape Town, South Africa, University of Alabama, Ithaca College), the International Midwest Band and Orchestra Conference (Chicago 2003 and 2008), the Kennedy Center of The Performing Arts (Washington), the International Double Reed Conference (Athens, GA), and as guest Clinician at the 2017 American Band College (Ashland, OR).