Ellie Snyder: Thank you so much for agreeing to meet with me today! I just have a couple of questions about how you got started and how you moved through your undergraduate degree. Firstly, I was wondering if you considered yourself a typical undergraduate student at Northwestern University? 

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Adam Unsworth: I've always been fairly one dimensionally motivated to be a professional musician, so there was a little bit of pressure just because I couldn't figure out what else I'd do instead of music. I didn't feel that I was a typical student at Northwestern because I was very involved with the jazz program--I was a bass player, too-- so that really put me in a different demographic at the music school, because I was hanging out with jazz people, playing jazz gigs at fraternities and in downtown Chicago and not just worshiping the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and playing horn excerpts. Actually, at the time I considered switching my major to bass, because some professors had heard me playing the bass and suggest I switch majors, but I'd never played upright, classical bass--so I figured that just wasn't the right move. I felt like jazz music was fun and classical music was hard work. Just the fact that I was sort of by-design diverse--which wasn't typical at Northwestern, put me in a different place. 

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ES: Did you ever feel backlash based on your choices in undergrad? 

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AU: I had either supportive or busy enough teachers that they didn't really care beyond if I showed up at the appointed hour for my lesson and had my stuff prepared. They didn't really ask me about any other gigs. But, I didn't really feel that I was going to be successful at that time, because I saw all those really focused people who all they wanted was an orchestral job. Part of me felt that I should've been doing what they were doing, but another part of me just wanted to be playing jazz. But, no, I don't remember being looked down upon by anyone, or having anyone think I shouldn't be playing jazz.  

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ES: What about the culture of the school--for example, how did the culture at Northwestern compare to the culture at the University of Michigan? 

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AU: It was a very conservatory-like atmosphere, with adjunct faculty members. There were five horn teachers and each of them had four students. They each came in on one morning per week. There were no group classes, not really much of a community among the horn players. We were on our own. You got your weekly lesson with your teacher, and that was that. I mean, it's not like conservatories can't have horn class, but there was a sense that the students were a sort of an adjunct thing that the faculty kept. I remember that part of our lessons were going downtown to hear the faculty play in the symphony orchestra. That was a huge part of my education--going and hearing them play, showing up to those concerts. The environment wasn't as healthy as my graduate program in Wisconsin, because there we had a full-time professor and a community with a sense that everyone was in it together. I definitely modeled how I want to have things run here, around my graduate school experience in Wisconsin. That's where I felt like I started to thrive, where I didn't feel as much pressure. So much of that just came from knowing your studio members and knowing them as comrades--not your competitors. I learned that if you're willing to work with them and help them out, they'll do the same for you! 

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ES: Do you remember how old you were when you decided you wanted to be a music major? 

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AU: It was the summer between my sixth and seventh grade school years. There was the International Horn Workshop in my hometown, and that totally set my mind, if there was any question about what I wanted to do. That eliminated any question. From that point on, I didn't really care if I was "cool" or not. I was going to be a horn player, and it didn't matter if anyone thought I was a "band geek." 

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ES: Did you feel like your parents ever pressured you, either to major in music or to not?

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AU: My parents are musicians. My dad was the associate dean of the Crane School of Music at Potsdam, New York, so he knew what I was in for and he was realistic about how hard it is and that I was never going to be rich. He'd jokingly talk about me doing something else, but when my mind was made up, they were definitely really supportive...maybe a little reticent because they knew how hard it was going to be, but they never questioned my decision. 

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ES: Going back to your college years, did you ever have any struggles with being a music major? Were there any moments where you wanted to quit? 

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AU: I almost quit at the end of my sophomore year. I was so close to quitting because I was getting frustrated with not being able to execute as well as I could've with my instrument. The saving figure who came into my life at that time was Arnold Jacobs, the famous tuba player and teacher. I was able to get some lessons with him and he turned my playing around. The negative thing about having adjunct faculty was that, while they were really good players, they weren't around as much as a full time teacher. My teacher didn't really know what to do with me, so each week I had the same frustrations. It took me over six months of trying before I could get a lesson with Arnold Jacobs, because he was already retired and not in the best health. He had people from all over the world wanting to study with him. I finally told him on one of my calls that I was about to quit the horn and that I was pretty desperate, so he relented. There were definitely plenty of roller coasters with the instrument. 

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