More about Morris Secon

Morris Secon began music lessons on the trumpet as a boy in Philadelphia, but he switched to the horn at age 13, for which Rochester music lovers and many students are grateful. He studied at Juilliard, then played in the New Orleans and Pittsburgh Symphonies before playing with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra from 1944 to 1959 and again from 1969 to 1982, performing all the great solos of the horn repertoire, and pleasing some notoriously hard-to-please conductors.



He served as musical and a personal example to his RPO colleagues and his students at the Eastman School, where he taught from 1950 to 1959. His students play in orchestras all over the country and include legendary Chicago Symphony horn player Dale Clevenger and current Eastman Professor of horn Peter Kurau, recently appointed Principal Horn of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.



He could be regarded simply as a great horn player and master of his instrument, but Morris Secon has also proven himself a great human being. He has given well over 1,000 programs on "The Magic of Music" to grade school children, high school students, senior citizens, the developmentally disabled, and the hospital bedridden. In his presentations, he plays horns of brass, bone, and wood, as well as seashells, vacuum cleaner hoses, and hula hoops. He makes beautiful music on all of them, and explains what makes it beautiful with great warmth and charm.



Morris Secon describes his philosophy as "a battle against the world of inanimate objects and the taking of things for granted. The only thing I can take for granted is the surprise that happens every day." In saluting his educational accomplishments and his continuing attachment to the magic of music, the alumni of the Eastman School proudly salute Morris Secon.

Rochester, New York

October 17, 2004