If you have never read his publications, some are a little dated ( The Art was published over 50 years ago!), but still worth reading. He was certainly an influence on me as a teacher and player.įarkas (1914-1992) was arguably the leading horn teacher of the twentieth century.
I later, as a Doctoral student, took a few lessons with Farkas and even played at his 50th wedding anniversary reception in a horn quintet. As a high school student I purchased my first horn, a Holton 177 (Farkas Model), I played on a Holton Farkas mouthpiece into college (I still have the MC and the MDC I used), and in late high school I first read The Art of French Horn Playing by Philip Farkas, a book that at the time greatly influenced my playing. To an older generation of players he is an icon, at least in part due to the products he was associated with. The topic of Philip Farkas came up recently and I realized that among horn students today his name is not as well known as I would have thought.
