About Camp
The Heartland Horn Camp is a week-long intensive French horn camp that takes place in Carroll, Iowa with housing provided at Swan Lake just outside of town. The camp will feature several horn players and teachers that are leaders in the field. This year's faculty includes Wayne Lu (Founder of HHC, President of Veritas Musica Publishing, Private Horn Teacher, Carroll Band Director, Professional Composer), James Naigus (Professor of Horn at U. of Georgia, Professional Composer), Victoria Knudtson (Assistant Principal Horn of the St. Louis Symphony), and Patrick Smith (Virginia Commonwealth University).
Our Goal
Our goal is to help each student/young musician get better. Through this exclusive French horn camp, students will be able to focus on the intricacies of playing the horn well. For all students, including those students that intend to audition for All-State, this camp will help foster healthy practice habits, increased performance confidence, and stronger ensemble skills. The French horn is a unique and challenging instrument to make beautiful. The faculty will be focussed on helping students learn the necessary fundamentals in great horn playing. Through lessons, students will get individual time with the faculty. Through horn ensemble rehearsals, students will learn to play in a section effectively. Through master classes, students will learn to become a more critical listener and also hear fellow horn players their age. At the end of the week, students will participate in a culminating concert that will feature their hard work at the Heartland Horn Camp.
Faculty
Past and Present
World-class faculty providing the most comprehensive instruction.
Wayne Lu started playing the horn at the age of 10. By age 17, he had won his first concerto competition with the Iowa City Youth Orchestra. Wayne’s orchestral experience includes numerous performances throughout the Midwest with the Champaign-Urbana Symphony, Knox-Galesburg Symphony, Decatur Symphony, Danville Symphony, and Prairie Ensemble. Wayne’s past horn teachers include A. Kendall Betts, Kazimierz Machala, Virginia Thompson, John Cerminaro, and Paul Anderson. His composition teachers include Herbert Brun and Alex Lubet. Wayne also studied conducting with Akira Mori.
As a composer, Wayne has written for full orchestra, brass choir, woodwind quintet, horn choir, horn sextet, horn quartet, horn trio, horn and saxophone, horn and flute, horn and piano, unaccompanied horn, unaccompanied saxophone, alto saxophone and piano, unaccompanied trumpet, trumpet and piano, solo harp, and mixed winds. Some recent premieres include In Memory of (to honor the life of Molly Naugle) by members of the Minnesota Orchestra Brass and Percussion, Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano by Paul Tucker, U.S. Army Ceremonial Band Alto Saxophone, at the North American Saxophone Alliance conference at the University of Georgia, The Heartland for woodwind quintet premiered by the Air Force Band WWQ at Fort Washington, MD, and Sonata for Solo Harp premiered by Courtney Hershey Bress, Colorado Symphony, Principal Harp in Lakewood, CO. Wayne released his debut composition CD, Legacy: Compositions by Wayne Lu in May 2011 through Veritas Musica Publishing, a company that he founded and has served as President for since 2009.
Wayne has two solo horn CDs to his credit. The second one, On the River, was released October 2002. As a conductor, he also has the debut recording of the University of Minnesota Horn Choir to his credit released in November 2002. Wayne has worked as Staff/Substitute Faculty at the prestigious Kendall Betts Horn Camp in Littleton, New Hampshire since June 2006.
As a conductor, Wayne led the University of Illinois Horn Choir from 1997-1999 with performances throughout the Midwest including a performance at the Midwest Regional Horn Workshop in Edwardsville, Illinois in 1998. He was also the conductor of the University of Minnesota Horn Choir for four years, a group he formed in 2000. Wayne is also the organizer, conductor, and performer in the Iowa City Horn Choir Festival, a unique horn choir festival that he started in 1999. Wayne has also worked as conductor of the Golden Valley Orchestra, Lake Waconia Wind Ensemble, and Twin Cities Horn Club.
Minnesota-born horn player Victoria Knudtson joined the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra as Assistant/Utility Horn during the 2019/2020 season. Born to a pianist mother and singer father, Knudtson found her artistic voice on the horn when she was 16 years old after a coincidental meeting with her first teacher, Wayne Lu.
In 2014, Knudtson began studying with Jeffery Nelsen at Indiana University. Thanks to the horn department at the Jacobs School of Music, she also benefited from the orchestral pedagogy of Dale Clevenger and studied early music performance on the natural horn with Richard Seraphinoff. During her undergrad, Knudtson also spent six months in Vienna, Austria, studying the quintessential and historic style of Vienna horn-playing. While pursuing her undergraduate degree, she served as principal horn of the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic and graduated in December of 2017.
In March 2018, Knudtson joined the St. Louis Brass (a quintet started in 1964 by then-members of the SLSO) and toured around the country with them until they disbanded during the 2020 lockdown. Knudtson began an artist diploma at the Curtis Institute of Music under Jennifer Montone and Jeffery Lang before acquiring the position with the SLSO in September 2019. While in Philadelphia, Knudtson held a core horn position with the ensemble Symphony in C and performed frequently throughout the city with various chamber groups. As a soloist, she performed with the Indiana University Symphony Orchestra and the Yale New Music Ensemble, and frequently appeared in recitals on the Curtis stage. She ardently enjoys collaborating with composers and performing new music, especially with friends.
Knudtson was a horn fellow of the Boston Symphony’s Tanglewood Music Center in 2019, and at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan with music director Valery Gergiev in 2018. Knudtson plays a leader/teacher role in the St. Louis Symphony’s Peer-to-Peer program and serves as a faculty member at Heartland Horn Camp in Carol, Iowa.
When not on stage or in the practice room, Knudtson is an avid latin dancer in the styles of salsa, bachata, and Brazilian Zouk, and enjoys getting outside to garden or go for walks in St. Louis’s beautiful green spaces.
From Mozart to military music, conducting to composition, The Who to woodwind quintets and everything else in between, J.G. Miller enjoys every aspect of the music industry.
An active educator, Dr. Miller has been involved with Kendall Betts Horn Camp and Cormont Music for decades. He has been teaching in public and private institutions since 2003 with an unwavering philosophy of "Curiosity, Commitment, and Community."
He can be heard as principal horn on the Grammy™ winning album, Soundtrack of the American Soldier as a member of The United States Army Field Band.
He was the brass leader for The Who’s Quadrophenia and More Tour, spending a year immersed with the legendary rock band. Additionally, Miller performed in Los Angeles studio orchestras on major motion picture soundtracks. He has performed with orchestras in Maryland, Virgina, California, Arizona, New York, and Pennsylvania.
He received a doctorate from The University of Southern California, a master’s from The University of Arizona, and degrees in both Performance and Education from The Eastman School of Music, where he received Performer’s Certificate honors. He has presented at several IHS symposia on topics including metallurgical archeology, horn in the rock genre, and copyright law for young arrangers.
As a composer and arranger, Dr. Miller’s works have been performed around the world, from the most humble of retirement homes to the clandestine halls of the National Security Agency. He serves as Vice President of Veritas Musica Publishing, founded by American composer Wayne Lu.
His horn teachers include Peter Kurau, James Thatcher, Daniel Katzen, and Kendall Betts. He also studied horn construction, tooling, and acoustical engineering under Walter Lawson, Bruce Lawson and Kendall Betts while working for Lawson Horns - winning his current position on a horn he built.
With as much time as he spends on the road, there’s no place quite like home - he enjoys spending time at home with his spouse and three children in Maryland. His hobbies include motorcycling, St. Louis baseball, eSports, and visiting national parks.
As a dedicated teacher, active performer, and prolific composer, Dr. James Naigus seeks to inspire the next generation of musicians and creative thinkers through artistic empowerment and enthusiastic innovation. He is Assistant Professor of Horn at the University of Georgia and hornist with the Georgia Brass Quintet. He is co-founder of the Cor Moto Horn Duo with Dr. Drew Phillips, and co-editor/contributor of the Creative Hornist and Technique Tips columns in the Horn Call, the journal of the International Horn Society. In 2024 he was awarded the prestigious Michael F. Adams Early Career Scholar Award from UGA.
He frequently plays with the Atlanta Symphony and Charleston Symphony, and has played with the Wichita Symphony, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony, Orchestra Iowa, Brevard Symphony, Gainesville Chamber Orchestra, Valdosta Symphony, and Ocala Symphony Orchestra.
Dr. Naigus has over 100 published compositions that have been performed by groups such as the New York Philharmonic, festivals such as Music Academy of the West, and are a common fixture in Universities around the world. In addition to self-publishing, his works can be found through Hal Leonard, WaveFront Music, and Veritas Musica Publishing. Dr. Naigus also frequently writes for commercials and film.
Dr. Naigus is a graduate of the University of Iowa (DMA) studying with Jeffrey Agrell. Dr. Naigus also studied horn and composition with Paul Basler at the University of Florida during his master’s degree, and while attending the University of Michigan for his undergraduate degree studied with Soren Hermansson, Bryan Kennedy, and Adam Unsworth. Prior appointments include the University of Central Missouri and the University of Iowa.
Patrick Smith is associate professor of French horn and music history, and the coordinator of music history at Virginia Commonwealth University. An internationally acclaimed horn player, music educator, lecturer and clinician, Smith actively challenges and stimulates students in both performance and academic settings. Smith is an alumnus of the Aspen and Brevard Music Festivals and has performed with numerous professional and regional ensembles. He has appeared as a soloist with the Emerson String Quartet and made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2008. An expert on jazz French horn history and repertoire, Smith is the author of Chronicle of a Phantom: The Julius Watkins Story, which chronicles the life and legacy of the first great American jazz French horn artist. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy in Music and Bachelor of Music Education degrees from the University of Florida, and his Master of Music in horn performance from the Hartt School of Music.
Kathy Thomas has an extensive professional career in central Florida. Originally
from Lombard, Illinois, Mrs. Thomas started horn at age of 9 with Sharon Corbin.
While attending the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana she studied with
Kent Laramee and Kazmierz Machala, and also John Fairfield at Northern Illinois
University. Mrs. Thomas enjoyed playing with the Wheaton Summer Symphony,
Champaign/Urbana Symphony, Symfonia Da Camera, Danville Symphony and
Hinsdale Symphony.
Since moving to Florida in 1993, Mrs. Thomas has worked for the Walt Disney World
company, Brevard Symphony Orchestra, Bach Festival Orchestra, West Coast
Symphony and The Florida Orchestra. In 2004 Mrs. Thomas won the third horn
position with the Orlando Philharmonic. She is a member of the Sovereign Brass
Quintet. In 2012 Kathy was appointed to the position of adjunct professor of French
Horn at Stetson University and has had the honor of soloing with both the Bach
Festival Orchestra and the Stetson Symphony Orchestra.
Mrs. Thomas manages a private teaching studio and has an extensive recording
studio career. Her credits include the albums “Movie Songs” and "Broadway" under
the Warner Brothers label, and featured tracks on albums for Lane Thaw “Toyko
Belle”, Tiffany Coburn “Light of A Million Mornings”, “Pillars of Salt”, and Fernando
Varela. Her studio work has been used for numerous companies including ESPN,
Disney World and Tokyo Disney. Kathy’s free-lance career provides a full schedule
of touring acts which have included Luciano Pavarotti, Peter Cetera, Frank Sinatra
Jr., Josh Groban, Andrea Bocelli, Evanescense, Il Volo and Il Divo.
You can also see Mrs. Thomas on several broadcasts including “Harmonious Live”
and the 2018 “Andre Bocelli Disney World Christmas Holiday Special”.
Kathy is married to professional trombonist Jeffrey Thomas. Together they have
raised 6 wonderful children and share a passion for butterfly gardening.
Camp Info
Location:
Carroll, Iowa
Dates:
Monday, July 28 – Move In/Registration Day, Night Session - Day 1 of Instruction
Tuesday, July 29 – Day 2 of Instruction
Wednesday, July 30 – Day 3 of Instruction
Thursday, July 31 – Day 4 of Instruction, Concert at 7pm
Friday, August 1 – Move Out Day
Age Range:
The camp is for serious horn students from ages 14-19. There is no audition requirement to be accepted to the camp. There is an audition requirement for students that want to be considered for a scholarship.
To apply:
An application and recommendation form need to be completed accompanied by a signed liability form and $100 deposit (non-refundable). All necessary forms are available as pdf files on this website.
Release and Medical Authorization Form
Tuition and Room and Board:
$700
Scholarships:
There will be partial scholarships available to students based on their playing and experience. Scholarship applications are due by June 1st, 2025. Additional scholarship application details are available below.
Current Scholarships:
The Gretchen Snedeker Scholarship
Contact
For answers to any additional questions, please contact Wayne Lu at wayne@heartlandhorncamp.com or 641-691-5807 (cell).