Elisa Koehler -
Cornet
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 Elisa
Koehler enjoys a versatile musical career as a conductor, trumpeter,
and scholar. Currently an Assistant Professor of Music at Goucher
College in Baltimore (www.goucher.edu),
she conducts the Goucher Chamber Symphony and teaches music history
and theory as well as conducting and trumpet. She was appointed
Music Director and Conductor of The Frederick Orchestra (www.frederickorchestra.org)
in 1997 and is now in her ninth season with the orchestra. An active
guest conductor and adjudicator, she has conducted All-County orchestras
in six Maryland counties and has served on the judging panel for
the National Trumpet Competition (USA). Her articles have appeared
in the International Trumpet Guild Journal, Journal of
the Conductors Guild, Maryland Music Educator, and the
Heritage Band Encyclopedia Supplement. Elisa Koehler served
as Recordings Review Editor for the ITG Journal between 2002
and 2005 and has also authored several major research articles for
the ITG (www.trumpetguild.org).
As a trumpeter, Elisa Koehler currently performs and records with
the Lyric Brass Quintet (www.lyricbrass.com),
past winners of the Baltimore Chamber Music Competition. She has
appeared as soloist with the Columbia Orchestra, the Peabody Wind
Ensemble, and the Handel Choir of Baltimore. Also active in historic
performance, she has performed and recorded on cornett and natural
trumpet with the Washington Cornett & Sackbutt Ensemble, the Orchestra
of the 17th Century, Modern Musick, and the Bach Sinfonia. Dr. Koehler
holds degrees from the University of Tennessee (M.M.) and the Peabody
Institute of the Johns Hopkins University (B.M., B.M.E., D.M.A.),
and has studied at the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute. Her
major teachers include Wayne Cameron (trumpet), Catherine Leach
(trumpet), John Spitzer (musicology), and Frederik Prausnitz (conducting).
Elisa plays a silver cornet made around 1890 in Philadelphia by William Seefeldt with a gold-wash bell on a Jules Levy model mouthpiece.
The Seefeldt cornet employs a design similar to that of the Courtois “Artist model” cornets named for the famous soloists Arban, Arbuckle, and Levy (Eldredge, 358-361). Each model featured a different bore size; Arban’s model had a medium bore (Eldredge, 389, note 57). Because the Seefeldt mouthpiece was stamped “Levy model,” and the leadpipe shank features a small bore – too small for a regular cornet mouthpiece – it is possible that the Courtois “Levy Model” also had a small bore. Another feature of the Levy mouthpiece was its hybrid cup/funnel design (Baines, Brass Instruments, 228-230).
See the instrument: Click on the small image to see larger version
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