Randy Gardner

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Randy C. Gardner is currently Artist-In-Residence at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance.  Following a distinguished tenure as Professor of Horn and Chair of the Winds, Brass, and Percussion Department at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), he was awarded the title of Professor Emeritus.  During his CCM tenure, Professor Gardner received CCM’s Ernest N. Glover Outstanding Teacher Award and the University of Cincinnati Award for Faculty Excellence. A successful and dedicated teacher, his students occupy performing and teaching positions throughout the US and abroad.

Prior to joining the CCM faculty, Gardner was Second Hornist of The Philadelphia Orchestra for 22 years, under the music directorships of Wolfgang Sawallisch, Riccardo Muti, and Eugene Ormandy.  Randy can be heard on over 200 recordings and seen on numerous video performances with the Orchestra.  Annual tours took him across the US and to Europe, Asia, Scandinavia, South America, Mexico and Central America.

Randy Gardner maintains an active schedule as an orchestral and chamber musician, soloist, and clinician. He was a long-time member of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and continues to perform as an extra/substitute musician with the Philadelphia and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras. He has also performed as a substitute/extra musician with the orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Colorado, Minnesota, New York and Pittsburgh.

Professor Gardner presents innovative and popular Modular Music Masterclasses, is the author of the acclaimed International Opus publication Mastering the Horn’s Low Register and self-published Good Vibrations: Masterclasses for Brass Players, and composed WHY?! for unaccompanied horn, published by Thompson Edition. He was a performer and co-producer of the Summit Records CD Shared Reflections: The Legacy of Philip Farkas and is featured on D+, a recording in collaboration with trombonist M. Dee Stewart.

Gardner has fostered the composition of new works for horn by commissioning compositions and by serving as Chair of the International Horn Society’s Meir Rimon Commissioning Assistance Fund. Works composed for him include Good to Go for horn, oboe, and piano by Douglas Lowry (premiered at the 2008 IHS Symposium in Denver), Quartet for Horns by Randall E. Faust (in memory of Philip Farkas, recorded on the Summit Records CD Shared Reflections), Sonata for Horn and Violoncello by Marcel Farago, Four Random Movements for horn and piano by Larry Wheelock, Valor and Four Hymn Tune Settings by Paul Basler.

Among the institutions where Randy Gardner has held faculty positions are Indiana University, Trenton State University (now The College of New Jersey), and the New York State Summer School of the Arts. He is a long-standing member of the Kendall Betts Horn Camp faculty.

Randy Gardner was a Featured Artist at the International Symposia of the International Horn Society in Beijing, China (2000), Lahti, Finland (2002) and Denver, CO (2008). In 2012, he had the distinct honor of performing Schumann’s Konzertstück for Four Horns and Orchestra at IHS Symposium 44 with conductor Barry Tuckwell and fellow hornists Gregory Hustis, Joseph Ognibene, and John Ericson. Gardner also had the great pleasure of performing Kenneth Fuchs’ Canticle to the Sun with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra at the 2008 IHS Symposium. He has been a Contributing Artist at many international and regional horn workshops and he serves as an adjudicator at solo and chamber music competitions.

An enthusiastic member of the International Horn Society, Gardner has served four terms on the IHS Advisory Council. In 2018, Randy Gardner was honored to receive the International Horn Society’s Punto Award for his contributions to the horn world.

Psychology, sports psychology in particular, has been an area of personal study for many years. In 1999, the University of Cincinnati Faculty Development Council awarded Prof. Gardner a grant for intensive study of principles of sports psychology as applied to music performance. His studies in performance psychology underpin many aspects of his teaching and performing.

Randy Gardner’s major horn teachers were Philip Farkas, Christopher Leuba, Ethel Merker, and William Adam.

In his free time, Randy enjoys spending time with his family, fishing, hiking, reading, sports, and church/community activism.  He is an avid Chicago Cubs fan who was thrilled to witness his team win the 2016 World Series after a “drought” of 108 years. Randy believes that Cubs fans model two important personal character traits – optimism and perseverance.

For more information contact

Randy Gardner

randy@randygardnerhorn.com