Frøydis Ree Wekre (born 31 July 1941 in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

) is a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...

. She studied in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Originally a

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

and

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

player, Wekre did not take up the

horn Horn most often refers to: *Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...

until age 17, having become fascinated with its sound. Her choice for the horn was also partly inspired by her having heard that it was a particularly difficult instrument to play. After only two years of studying horn with Wilhelm Lanzky-Otto and

Vitaly Bujanovsky Vitaly Mikhailovich Bujanovsky or Buyanovsky (russian: link=no, Виталий Михайлович Буяновский; 27 August 1928, in Leningrad – 5 May 1993, in Saint Petersburg) was a Soviet Russian classical horn player, music teacher a ...

, she was invited to join the Norwegian Opera Orchestra. She obtained a post with the

Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra The Oslo Philharmonic (Oslo-Filharmonien) is a Norwegian symphony orchestra based in Oslo, Norway. The orchestra traces its roots to the Philharmonic Society founded in 1847 and the Christiania Musical Association co-founded by Edvard Grieg in 187 ...

in 1961, where she became co-principal horn in 1965. Wekre stayed with the orchestra until her retirement in 1991. Wekre is horn and wind

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

at the

Norwegian Academy of Music The Norwegian Academy of Music (Norwegian: ''Norges musikkhøgskole'', NMH) is a university-level music conservatory located in Oslo, Norway, in the neighbourhood of Majorstuen, Frogner. It is the largest music academy in Norway and offers the co ...

. She is an active lecturer and participates in juries at international competitions. Her

book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...

''Thoughts on Playing the Horn Well'' has been translated into several languages. Frøydis Ree Wekre has been an honorary member of the

International Horn Society The International Horn Society (IHS) is an international organization dedicated to players of the horn founded in June 1970 with a goal to promote horn playing, education and fellowship. A community of over 3500 members from 55 countries around t ...

since 1994, where she served as president for two years. She is a strong advocate for free buzzing and mouthpiece buzzing, even saying you should be doing it while waiting for the bus. Though this may seem eccentric, her justification is,
If people don't know you, it doesn't matter what they think of you, and if they do know you, well, then it's not a surprise."
Renowned as a

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

and performer, Wekre has given masterclasses and workshops throughout

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. Because of Frøydis’ young age when she won her first job, she has become an inspiration and icon to many young female brass players, showing them they have just as much a place in the orchestra as anyone else.

Books

References

Living people 1941 births Norwegian classical horn players Women horn players Norwegian music educators Musicians from Oslo {{Norway-musician-stub