University Of Alabama Musician Wins International Competition

By Mark Hughes Cobb
The Tuscaloosa News

The city of champions adds another to the pantheon: Horn player Joshua Williams, with one year more on his doctoral work at the University of Alabama, won over every other player in the International Horn Competition of America, best of the best.

Labor Day weekend in Fort Collins, Colorado, the Hillcrest High School graduate blew all competition away, taking first prize in the professional, rather than university, division. For the first time in its 38-year history, the pro level was won by someone who flew back to his day job as a student, said his teacher since ninth grade and director of UA’s School of Music, Charles “Skip” Snead. It was as if a student won the U.S. Open, said Snead, who deemed it “a stunning, essentially lifetime achievement.”

“In our discipline, it’s hard to describe how huge this is,” he said. Getting seen by musicians from around the world was the original goal. When Williams rolled through the first round of 30 to make it to semi-finals with six others, Snead was ecstatic: Goal achieved and exceeded. When Williams made the finals cut, with Markus Osterlund of the National Symphony of Washington, D.C., and Jorge Mejia, principal horn of the Bogota (Colombia) Symphony Orchestra, anything seemed possible.The student felt strangely confident, even against premier players, performing for an audience of musicians from around the world.

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