Hornist and composer LYDIA BUSLER-BLAIS began her career performing at age 16 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and composing music for high school dance troupes. Lydia has since performed with the New York City Ballet, Brooklyn Philharmonic, José Limón Dance Company, and Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, as well as holding the position of Solo Horn with the Rome Festival Opera. Ms. Busler-Blais has formed collaborative partnerships with pianists Elizabeth Metcalfe, Simone Dinnerstein and Mary Au, violinists Raymond Karl Malone and Jose Miguel Cueto, cellist Robert Blais, hornist Jeffrey Agrell and hornist John Little with whom she recently formed the Starlight Horn Duo .
Soloist, lyric improvisationalist and composer (ASCAP), Lydia's compositions are performed by artists around the world. In honor of the 2011 Year of the Vermont Composer, Lydia was awarded by the Consortium of Vermont Composers for the war-time opera One Way In, written with playwright Lars Nielsen, and by the International Horn Society Meir Rimon Commissioning Fund for Lanterns, commissioned for and performed around the US by the ZINKALI trio (Elise Carter – flute, Susan LaFever – horn, Laura Ravotti – piano). In the same year, her vocal folk work with cello, guitar, and doumbek collaborating with Jesse Lovasco was performed at the Vermont Statehouse for the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers and Lydia's work Journale was composed for and performed by flutist Aleksandr Haskin with pianist Mary Au at the Nixon Library in Los Angeles as well as throughout Southern California.
Lydia has been honored with initiation into the Los Angeles Chapter of the international professional music fraternity Mu Phi Epsilon and is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Her works are published by the Westleaf Edition and you can view or download Lydia's catalogue here.
“Busler-Blais is an amazing horn player. It is impossible to see any spot where the sound was coming from – it seemed to rise out of the upper jaw and the cheekbones. Her embouchure is unique in my experience, and it enables her to play anything without a slip – the French Horn is notoriously hard to control, but not for her.”
Dan Wolfe of the Shelburne News
“Lovely tone...a fine horn player and moreover a gifted musician.”
Lowell Greer, international horn soloist and recording artist and winner of seven International Horn Competitions
“Excellent phrasing and musicianship.”
Jim Decker, the film industry’s most recorded studio horn player, and former Associate Principal of the National Symphony Orchestra
“Lydia is an appropriate, tasteful and mature musician with professional and confident stage presence. Fine and mature Mozart.” David Thompson, Solo Horn of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra
“I enjoy Lydia’s forward style of playing and nice warm tone; she gives Mozart a very nice shape to the phrases.” William Capps, former Principal horn, Spoleto (Italia) Festival
“Sunday afternoon's performance at the Unitarian Church by Arioso made coming in from the gorgeous day outdoors well worth it. Arioso, a piano quartet and two female singers introduced a substantial new work by Montpelier composer Lydia Busler-Blais. Busler-Blais, best-known as a professional French horn player and teacher, was represented by the premiere of her work, "Of Longing in Amethyst Hills," a 20-minute piece scored for the entire Arioso ensemble. Concerning a couple during the Irish uprising after World War I, the four-part piece, despite its easy accessibility, felt fresh. This new Busler- Blais effort proved entertaining and often compelling. The craftsmanship in the writing, skillfully weaving in Irish fiddle themes, was quite effective. And, despite a few rough passages in this difficult score, the performance was effective and convincing.
JIM LOWE Times Argus
Soloist, lyric improvisationalist and composer (ASCAP), Lydia's compositions are performed by artists around the world. In honor of the 2011 Year of the Vermont Composer, Lydia was awarded by the Consortium of Vermont Composers for the war-time opera One Way In, written with playwright Lars Nielsen, and by the International Horn Society Meir Rimon Commissioning Fund for Lanterns, commissioned for and performed around the US by the ZINKALI trio (Elise Carter – flute, Susan LaFever – horn, Laura Ravotti – piano). In the same year, her vocal folk work with cello, guitar, and doumbek collaborating with Jesse Lovasco was performed at the Vermont Statehouse for the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers and Lydia's work Journale was composed for and performed by flutist Aleksandr Haskin with pianist Mary Au at the Nixon Library in Los Angeles as well as throughout Southern California.
Lydia has been honored with initiation into the Los Angeles Chapter of the international professional music fraternity Mu Phi Epsilon and is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Her works are published by the Westleaf Edition and you can view or download Lydia's catalogue here.
“Busler-Blais is an amazing horn player. It is impossible to see any spot where the sound was coming from – it seemed to rise out of the upper jaw and the cheekbones. Her embouchure is unique in my experience, and it enables her to play anything without a slip – the French Horn is notoriously hard to control, but not for her.”
Dan Wolfe of the Shelburne News
“Lovely tone...a fine horn player and moreover a gifted musician.”
Lowell Greer, international horn soloist and recording artist and winner of seven International Horn Competitions
“Excellent phrasing and musicianship.”
Jim Decker, the film industry’s most recorded studio horn player, and former Associate Principal of the National Symphony Orchestra
“Lydia is an appropriate, tasteful and mature musician with professional and confident stage presence. Fine and mature Mozart.” David Thompson, Solo Horn of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra
“I enjoy Lydia’s forward style of playing and nice warm tone; she gives Mozart a very nice shape to the phrases.” William Capps, former Principal horn, Spoleto (Italia) Festival
“Sunday afternoon's performance at the Unitarian Church by Arioso made coming in from the gorgeous day outdoors well worth it. Arioso, a piano quartet and two female singers introduced a substantial new work by Montpelier composer Lydia Busler-Blais. Busler-Blais, best-known as a professional French horn player and teacher, was represented by the premiere of her work, "Of Longing in Amethyst Hills," a 20-minute piece scored for the entire Arioso ensemble. Concerning a couple during the Irish uprising after World War I, the four-part piece, despite its easy accessibility, felt fresh. This new Busler- Blais effort proved entertaining and often compelling. The craftsmanship in the writing, skillfully weaving in Irish fiddle themes, was quite effective. And, despite a few rough passages in this difficult score, the performance was effective and convincing.
JIM LOWE Times Argus
