Philip Farkas & His Horn A Happy Worthwhile Life Review by Randy C. Gardner, Cornucopia, September 1998

"Phil Farkas himself described horn playing as a happy, worthwhile way of life. For him it was also a necessity, an all-consuming obsession. A born perfectionist, always attempting to do everything right, he also had a sensitive and compassionate personality...." These words begin the Foreword to Nancy Jordan Fako's biography of the late Philip Farkas, Philip Farkas & His Horn: A Happy Worthwhile Life.

Fako -- a former student, colleague, and close personal friend of Farkas's -- has presented a multi-faceted chronological picture of this great many as part of a closely-knit family, a symphonic and chamber musician, a writer of great importance, and instrument designer in pursuit of excellence, a superb businessman, a teacher who felt that his true legacy would remain in his students around the globe, and a devoted family man.

Always a collector, Farkas left behind voluminous correspondence, well-organized scrapbooks, photographs, date books, and other memorabilia through which Fako was able to reconstruct a highly accurate account of his entire life.

Many know of his great love for flying, but one learns here that as a young teen Farkas was a prize winner in a national model airplane design competition. Few people know of his brief sojurn out of the musical world into the advertising business, during which time he "invented a device which used large transparent sheets of plastic on long rolls to display various rooms of a home."

Readers will also learn of his deeply spiritural side, discover who most strongly influenced his formative years, read humorous anecdotes and thoughts regarding some of the most famous conductors of his day, marvel at this man's truly indefatigable energy and dedication to practice, and see a wonderful human being who always left other with the gift of feeling positive about themselves.

This book will inspire the horn-playing reader to practive and reach for the starts. As the author writes, "There is much we can all learn from him."

Randy was a Farkas student at Indiana University, played second horn in the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1975-1997, and is now professor of horn at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. The book is available for $31 from Crescent Park Music Publications, 337 Ridge Avenue, Elmhurst IL 60126

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