Recommendations for A new Horn for my daughter
Hi all!
I have searched this forum relentlessly now for a year or more, once I started planning on getting a new horn for my daughter. I must say all the recommendations are confusing at times, but I have read through them.
My daughter is an incoming high school freshman and about 5'4". She is interested in going into Music Education when done here, with her eyes currently on UNT's program, where Dr. Bowman teaches. A great many of the current studio students are Besson or Willson users.
I just want to get her a great horn that will carry her into college and beyond, and have a $7500 budget. I have looked over Adams (my daughter has become a fan of Dr. Werden's videos, especially Tico Tico), Sterling, Wessex Dolce(which was going to be what I pushed when I thought the budget was going to be much lower), and others.
My downside is I want it to be her choice, but not any places to play such horns here in the Dallas, TX area. I am taking her to Texas Bandmastters in July, and they should have a display room, but know way of knowing these brands will be there.
So, though hundreds of threads exist, I would appreciate a hand in sorting it out. Should I aim for those at her age (almost 15) or should I think about more intermediate models? She'd love to have her own marching horn too so if there are good models in the $4500-5500 range for concert horn so she could use the extra for marching, I'd like to here that too. She's a straight student who loves her music, so only want to give her the best for her. Her school horns have, frankly, been crap. Beginner was the same YEP-321 I likely played at the same school, and the last two years have been an Eastman with perpetual value and stuffiness issues.
Richard Culver