Over half his lifetime ago, reluctant horn player Jonathan Hammill, at 15, slumped in the back seat of the family car. Sweaty and bored on a family trip to his grandparents' house in Florida, Hammill watched as his mother impulsively popped in a tape his music teacher had given him as encouragement at the beginning of the summer — Dale Clevenger of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, playing Mozart's horn concerti.
As the flat landscape of St. Pete's sand and palm trees transformed to the greenery of the Brandon countryside, so did his attitude about music. "I wasn't really serious about the horn. I was much more interested in American football, but I heard this unbelievable sound playing Mozart, and for some reason it hit me. I had the potential to make that same sound on my own instrument," he recalls. "The whole visit with my grandparents, I couldn't wait to get back home and start practicing."
Hammill, 34, first horn for Tokyo Symphony Orchestra since 2001, credits his music teacher, Carolyn Wahl, with providing both instruction and inspiration. "I call her Yoda; somehow, she always knows best, and knows how to light that fire for each of her students."