Concert to honor Barry Horn's memory
Music and education, two of the things that Barry T. Horn valued most, will pay tribute to his memory today during a concert at UTB-TSC.
Horn, who was the director of the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art, was murdered on Oct. 24. Before his post at the museum, Horn worked for many years in the Office of Development at The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, where he helped to improve the school’s music program and bring a Steinway piano to the school from New York, among other projects.
With a budding music program, the school was in desperate need of a new piano. Though Horn was not a musician, he recognized the importance of having a truly superior instrument for superior musicians to play. When it came to pianos he also knew that the famous handcrafted Steinways are a cut above the rest.
"Everything that you’re trying to do in the practice room that doesn’t come out all suddenly makes sense when you play on a Steinway," said music education graduate student Willie Morales. "Any nuance will respond, the softest dynamics grow to a really full sound. There’s no comparison."
Morales was among the first music students to play the Steinway, and he is one of four pianists who will regale concert-goers with its music at the concert. He says being chosen to play in Horn’s memory is an honor.
"Barry was a music lover," Morales said. "Wherever he went he had a smile on his face, and he was always ready to give everything he could for us."
Richard Urbis, a music professor at UTB-TSC, will be one of the performers at tonight’s concert. Urbis traveled to New York in 2003 to select the $85,000 Steinway.
"We consider ourselves to be a very serious, very ambitious music department with very high standards," Urbis said. "You need at least one great instrument to perform on."
When Urbis selected the Steinway, he had his pick of seven different pianos.
"We found the best of those seven," Urbis said.
Every Steinway is a little bit different from the others, Urbis said.
"When you’re dealing with God’s creation, no wood grain is alike. Every Steinway piano is kind of like a ceramic creation made by hand. They look alike when you first look at then, but then you realize they’re all a little bit different."
The concert will include famous pieces that everyone can relate to – piano aficionado or not. Beethoven, Debussy, and Chopin will be featured, among other composers.
Proceeds will go to the Barry T. Horn Endowment for the Arts, a scholarship fund set up by Horn’s friend Sonia Cunningham in the wake of his death. Horn helped Cunningham establish a scholarship in her own son’s name after his untimely death while he was serving as a New York City police officer.
Urbis said that the concert was a fitting tribute to Horn – a person who took great satisfaction from bringing students new resources.
"The piano is about artistry and the piano is about education," Urbis said. "I have heard of other institutions that have purchased Steinways but those institutions decided the piano was too valuable for students to use. Barry said we should use this piano and give the students the opportunity to play on the very best."
The concert will be at 7 p.m. today in the Science, Engineering, and Technology Lecture Hall at UTB-TSC. Donations to the Barry T. Horn Endowment for the Arts can be made by visiting www.utb.edu/vpia/development.
