Jean-Pierre Dassonville

Né à Soignies en Belgique, Jean-Pierre Dassonville entame ses études musicales, guidé par les conseils avisés de son père, et les termine aux conservatoires royaux de Mons et Liège dans la classe de Nico De Marchi. Il se perfectionne ensuite auprès de Francis Orval et de Claude Maury.
Très tôt, il est engagé dans divers orchestres. Il est successivement corniste dans l’Orchestre d’Harmonie de la Musique des Guides, dans l’Orchestre Symphonique de la RTBF, dans l’Orchestre du Vlaamse Opéra et est actuellement premier cor solo de l’Orchestre du Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie à Bruxelles.
Il s’intéresse aussi intensément à la pratique du cor naturel, dont il est un interprète très recherché. Ainsi, on le retrouve comme premier cor dans des ensembles tels que Les Agrémens, ex Tempore, Il Gardellino, les Muffati, Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, l’Orchestre des Champs Elysées et le Collegium Vocale sous la direction de Philippe Herreweghe.
Comme chambriste, tant au cor moderne que naturel, on le retrouve dans les ensembles de la Monnaie, entre autres avec Antonio Pappano, les ensembles Oxalys, Quartz, Odéon, Soltice, Mengal, Il Gardellino, le collectif Wolf,  le Concert Bourgeois, le quatuor Danel, en duo avec le pianofortiste Guy Van Waas et le quintette à vents des Agrémens.
Avec tous ces ensembles, il participe à d’innombrables enregistrements discographiques et vidéo.
Ses activités de soliste l’amène à se produire avec l’Orchestre de la Monnaie sous la direction de Kasushi Ono, l’Ensemble Orchestral de Bruxelles, l’Orchestre Lyrique de Région Avignon Provence et L’Orchestre Bruocella.
Il créé au festival de cor de Vire le concerto de Roland Schoelinck, œuvre dont il est le dédicataire. Il est l'invité régulier des festivals de cor de Vire, d’Avignon, de Montréal et d’Annecy, au symposium de L’international Horn Society à Londres et dernièrement à Liverpool par la British Horn Society.
Il donne des masterclasses, notamment au festival Epsilon de Saint-Yrieix La Perche, en Anjou dans le cadre de l’ARAM, aux festivals de Vire et d’Avignon, au pôle supérieur de Dijon, Lille et Strasbourg, au Conservatoire de Montréal, au séminaire de musique ancienne de Namur, à l’académie internationale de Dinant, à l’académie d’été de Saint Vaast, à différents congrès de l’association française du cor, à Birmingham et au Royal Northerm College of Music à Manchester invité par la British Horn Society, à la Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music Singapor, à la Séoul National University où il enseigne à la fois le cor moderne et le cor naturel. Il est également invité comme formateur au Jeune Orchestre Atlantique à Saintes.
La International Horn Society l’a aussi reconnu comme l'un des grands représentants du style "européen" du cor. Dans ce cadre, il joue en Août 2014 à Londres, lors du  symposium annuel, un récital sur un Cor d’Adolphe Sax à 6 pistons.
Il est également lauréat du concours de cor des Alpes – une autres de ses passions… -  de Nendaz en Suisse.
Toutes ces activités l’amènent à se produire en Europe, au Japon, au Canada, en Chine, en Corée, à Singapour et aux Etats-Unis.

Tom Varner

Tom Varner is known as one of the top living pioneers of jazz and improvisation on the horn, an inventive and passionate composer for his various ensembles, and an authority on jazz horn history and repertoire.

Tom was born in 1957 and grew up in New Jersey, and studied piano with Capitola Dickerson. He started playing horn in fourth grade, choosing it from a photo. He started taking private lessons during his freshman year of high school, concentrating on classical music. When he got interested in jazz, he thought he would have to listen to it but never be able to play it because of his instrument until a friend introduced him to a Thelonius Monk record with a horn solo (by Julius Watkins). Tom played in school and community orchestras, but also the school jazz big band. He studied briefly in 1976 with jazz horn pioneer Julius Watkins, gaining confidence that playing jazz on the horn was possible.

Tom studied for two years at Oberlin College, then transferred to the New England Conservatory of Music (Boston), where he studied horn with Thomas Newell and jazz improvisation and composition with Ran Blake, George Russell, and Jaki Byard and earned a BM in 1979. He holds an MA (2005) from the City College of New York, where he studied with Jim McNeely, Scott Reeves, and John Patitucci. Tom lived in New York City for 26 years, moving to Seattle in 2005.

Tom appears on more than 70 albums and has recorded 14 albums as a composer/leader. He has been in the Down Beat Critics Poll Top Ten annually since the mid-1990s and has been awarded grants from the Jack Straw Foundation, Seattle’s 4Culture, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Chamber Music America/Doris Duke Foundation, and has been a resident at the MacDowell, Blue Mountain, and Centrum arts colonies.

Sidemen on his albums as leader have included Steve Wilson, Tony Malaby, Ed Jackson, Ellery Eskelin, Tom Rainey, Cameron Brown, Drew Gress, Matt Wilson, Kenny Barron, Victor Lewis, Fred Hopkins, and Billy Hart. He has performed and recorded with Miles Davis, Quincy Jones, McCoy Tyner, the Mingus Orchestra, and many others. His influences include Ornette Coleman, Steve Lacy, Charles Mingus, Anthony Braxton, Sonny Rollins, and minimalist composers such as Steve Reich and Philip Glass. His first album featured horn, alto sax, bass, and drums. Later albums were for a quintet of horn, two saxes, bass, and drums, with frequent guest artists. Nine Surprises is for a nonet of three brass, four reeds, and bass and drums.

Many of Tom’s albums reflect both serious and humorous interest in religion, in particular the first century, the upheaval of the Roman Empire, the first 200 years of Christianity, and also Hollywood Bible movies. Although he grew up in New Jersey, his parents were both from a small town in Missouri, and Tom went to church every week growing up. Other influences are science and sci-fi, mythology and folklore, Americana and urban kitsch, James Brown and 20th-century music.

Tom is now Associate Professor of Music at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. He has written articles on Julius Watkins and afterwards for The Horn Call (1988, 1989). While living in New York City, he organized the first Julius Watkins Jazz French Horn Festival, featuring himself, Mark Taylor, John Clark, and Vincent Chancey. He plays a Paxman 20M full double horn.

Tom was elected an IHS Honorary Member in 2020.