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Join us Sunday, December 21st, 2025 at 2pm for Holiday Horns with the NSO Brass, a Appalachian Chamber Music Festival concert.Tickets are $30 and only 50 are available.
JAMES NICKEL
French hornist James Nickel has been a member of the National Symphony Orchestra since 2008, serving as Third Horn and, since 2022, as Acting Associate Principal Horn. Before joining the NSO, he held positions as Assistant Principal Horn of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Associate Principal Horn of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He has also appeared as Guest Principal Horn with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, and Fort Worth Symphony, and has served as Principal Horn of Arizona Musicfest.
A versatile chamber musician, James performs frequently throughout the Washington, D.C. area with the Smithsonian Chamber Players, Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, and 21st Century Consort. His festival appearances include Mainly Mozart in San Diego, Music in the Mountains in Durango (CO), Sun Valley Summer Symphony in Idaho, and international engagements at the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival in South Africa.
A dedicated educator, James taught at George Mason University from 2011 to 2024 and previously held faculty positions at the Catholic University of America and Baylor University. He has taught at the Interlochen Arts Camp Summer Horn Intensive, the Kennedy Center’s Summer Music Institute, and currently serves as Brass Specialist with the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestras, where he mentors the region’s most promising young brass players. He also works extensively through the Washington Musical Pathways Initiative and the Kennedy Center Youth Fellowship Program, guiding emerging musicians from diverse backgrounds toward collegiate and professional success.
James maintains a thriving private studio of high-school hornists in Northern Virginia whose students have earned top placements in All-Virginia Band and admission to leading conservatories worldwide.
ROBERT REARDEN
Robert Rearden joined the National Symphony Orchestra horn section in 2016. He was previously principal horn of the Florida Orchestra from 2010 to 2016 and was a member of the New World Symphony from 2006 to 2010. Rearden has played guest principal horn with the New York Philharmonic, including the nationally televised reopening of David Geffen Hall, as well as with the San Francisco Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He has performed as an extra musician with the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Opera Orchestra, and since 2004 with the Cleveland Orchestra, where he was also a long-term substitute in 2015. Rearden has also performed with the All-Star Orchestra and with the Mainly Mozart, Britt, Artosphere, Steamboat Springs, and Spoleto USA festival orchestras.
Rearden appeared as a soloist with the National Symphony and conductor Gianandrea Noseda in Schumann’s Konzertstück for Four Horns, alongside his NSO colleagues. While with the Florida Orchestra, he performed Nocturno by Franz Strauss in a transcription for horn and orchestra by Teddy Abrams, conducted by Abrams, and Richard Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 2 with conductor Stuart Malina.
His 2022 recording, Idyll, with Teddy Abrams (available to stream for free at robertrearden.hearnow.com) was praised by The Horn Call as “one of the most satisfying CDs of horn music ever.”
He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of South Carolina as a student of Robert Pruzin and earned a Master of Music degree and artist diploma at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Eli Epstein and Richard Solis. He also studied with Julie Landsman and David Wakefield. He was a fellowship recipient at Tanglewood and the Aspen Music Festival.
Rearden was a featured artist at the Southeast Horn Workshop in 2017 and 2023. He is on the faculty of the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.
GEOFFREY PILKINGTON
Geoffrey Pilkington was appointed Principal Horn of the Washington National Opera at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2014, after ten years of holding the Fourth Horn position. He has also appeared as Guest Principal with leading ensembles including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and Auckland Philharmonia, where he spent six months in 2021. A Juilliard graduate, Geoffrey studied with Julie Landsman and later at London’s Royal Academy of Music with Michael Thompson and Richard Watkins. He has been a grand-prize winner at the International Horn Competition of America, the Royal Academy of Music, and The Florida Orchestra Young Artist Concerto Competition. An active soloist and chamber musician, Geoffrey has performed Schumann’s Konzertstück with the Harrisburg Symphony, appeared in multiple Wagner Ring Cycles with the Kennedy Center and San Francisco Opera, and participated in international festivals in South Africa, Italy, and across the U.S. He is on the faculty of Shenandoah Conservatory and regularly performs chamber music with groups such as The Van Buren Winds, Market Square Concert Series, and Kingston Chamber Music Festival. Geoffrey lives in Fairfax, VA with his wife Kathryn, Co-Artistic Director of Washington, DC’s Company E, and their two sons.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Happy Retreat, 600 Mordington Ave, Charles Town, WV 25414-1539, United States
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