S.D. Symphony Names Three to Horn Positions

John Lorge has been appointed the San Diego Symphony’s principal horn, orchestra officials announced Tuesday. Lorge, who has been the symphony’s acting principal horn for the past three seasons, and two other musicians were named to permanent chairs in the horn section after auditions Monday.

Before Lorge joined the local symphony in 1978, he was the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s principal horn in his native state. Lorge performs with the Arioso Wind Quintet and is a member of San Diego State University’s music instructional studio faculty.

Lisa Ford of Silver Spring, Md., will be the new assistant principal horn, and San Diego Symphony player Ethan Dulsky will be third horn. Ford has been co-principal horn with the Florida West Coast Symphony and has played with the Fairfax (Va.) Symphony. Dulsky came to San Diego in 1984.

In another move, American violinist Mark Kaplan will replace Briton Nigel Kennedy in Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto on Thursday and Friday at Copley Symphony Hall. Earlier this week, Kennedy canceled due to food poisoning. Music director designate Yoav Talmi will conduct the symphony both evenings in a program that also features Tchaikovsky’s “Pathetique” Symphony.

Kaplan has appeared with numerous American orchestras and made his European debut as a last-minute substitute for Pinchas Zukerman in Cologne. In 1985, he premiered Marc Neikrug’s Violin Concerto with the Halle Orchestra in Manchester, England, and later played it with the Berlin Radio Symphony.

In the chamber music arena, he performs with pianist David Golub and cellist Colin Carr, a trio that has recorded all of the Schubert and Mendelssohn Piano Trios.