Three horn players selected for positions with award-winning Mexican orchestra

Posted: 02/09/2012

Three horn players from Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts have won positions with Orquesta Sinfonica Sinaloa de las Artes, which performs symphony, pops, opera, ballet and chamber music throughout Mexico.

John Reem, 27, of Macomb, Ill., (pictured above at right), a graduate student in CCPA’s Orchestral Studies Diploma Program, has been selected as principal horn with the Mexican orchestra based in northwest Mexico’s state of Sinaloa; Rhonda Kremer, 21, of Chico, Calif., (pictured above at center), a 2011 bachelor’s in music graduate of CCPA’s Horn Performance Program, has won the position of second horn; and Amber Dean, 23, of East Moline, Ill., (pictured above at left), a graduate student in the horn program, has been chosen as third horn.

All three have studied with Dale Clevenger, a veteran horn instructor in the music conservatory at CCPA and principal horn with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

“I have never seen anything like this happen before,” said Clevenger, who has been teaching for 27 years, including more than a decade at Roosevelt University. “It is highly unusual that there would be three openings in one orchestra at the same time, and it’s extremely rare that all three musicians chosen for the openings would come from the same school,” he said.

Two of the students participated in auditions with the orchestra, and all three were highly recommended for the positions by Clevenger. “All three are very deserving of this opportunity and I think they will do very well,” he said.

The three performed their first concert together in January with Orquesta Sinfonica Sinaloa de las Artes, which has a 42-week season all over Sinaloa and throughout Mexico. Under the auspices of the Cultural Institute of Sinaloa and Mexico’s state government of Sinaloa, Orquesta Sinfonica de las Artes’ musicians come from more than 15 countries, including Mexico, the United States, England, Scotland, Canada, Romania and Argentina.

“We are all very appreciative of being offered this exceptional opportunity to perform music for a living,” said Kremer. “In addition, we are all friends and are very fortunate to have been able to move together, to play together and to tackle all of the challenges of adapting to a new country together,” she said.

“We are most grateful for the wonderful instruction and inspiration that we have received from our private teacher at Roosevelt,” she added. “Without Dale Clevenger, winning these positions would not have been possible.”

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