The French Horn Spoke To Laredo’s Hernandez

At the mere question of what type of instrument he plays, Javier Hernandez, a French horn player at this year’s Round Top Music Festival, lit up, and a smile immediately crossed his face.

For Laredo born Hernandez, it was love at first sight when he saw the French horn. “When I was in junior high, there was a recruiting event, and there were high school students that we fed into. During the event, a brass quartet was performing, and I noticed that one of them had their hand in their bell. I thought, ‘What are they doing? Is that normal? I don’t know what they’re doing.’ So I was just always kind of curious after seeing that. The French horn just spoke to me,” said Hernandez.

So why do French horn players have to put their hand in their bell when playing? Known as hand-stopping, this helps to support the instrument and to make minor adjustments to the pitch or timbre.

Hernandez recently graduated from Baylor University with a bachelor’s in music performance, and in the fall he will start his master’s degree studying with David Heyde, Associate Principal Horn in the Linda VanSickle Associate Principal Horn Chair with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra at Southern Methodist University.

Before coming to the Round Top Music Festival, Hernandez had gone to a few other premier summer training programs, but for Hernandez, Round Top Music Festival is something extra special. “This is top notch and a lot of brass coaching. It’s very intimate, so whenever we go out to a rehearsal, it just feels like you know everyone already, and you kind of keep that connection going through the whole summer. You just build with each other. It’s very special,” said Hernandez.

Also, the variety of different styles that everyone is coming from, like teaching styles, that’s something really hard to hone in on, but as soon as we open our ears and just decide to work together, something beautiful happens.”

Being at the Round Top Music Festival, Hernandez has learned to be daring and take risks to show the heart of music. “In my lessons and through the master classes we’ve had, one thing I learned is to be daring, because music captivates everyone. So if we’re daring and we help portray the nuances and the difficulty of our music and make it sound easy by taking risks, like playing really soft or playing really loud, that’s what brings everyone together, just those special moments. That will melt everyone’s heart.”

“Music,” Hernandez pauses, “is my life. There’s nothing else that I gravitate towards more than music. It helps that my family loves my music, and the audiences I’ve performed for helped me appreciate music even more.”

“When I went to Baylor University, everyone there was really connected, and through God and with the power of music, it created something special. All my teachers have been great influences. It’s just been an upward hill. I’m excited to see where I go from here,” said Hernandez.

If you want to see Hernandez and the rest of the Texas Festival Orchestra perform, you can see their summer schedule and purchase tickets at FestivalHill.org.