ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´

TRI-STATES HORN FESTIVAL GUEST RECITAL: Cobalt Horn Quartet

Sunday, February 1, 2026·3:00 – 4:00pm

COFAC Recital Hall, 1020 Simpkins Cir, Macomb, IL 61455, USA

Notes: This performance is free and open to the public.

The 3:00pm Guest Recital is free and open to the public.

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PROGRAM
FEATURED ARTISTS

• Katie Johnson-Webb, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• Caroline Steiger, George Mason University
• Jena Gardner, ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´

SPECIAL GUESTS

• Randall Faust, horn
• Po-Chuan Chiang, piano

Espionage — Susan Mutter

• Randall Faust
• Jena Gardner
• Katie Johnson-Webb
• Caroline Steiger

Contemplation — Aliyah Danielle

• Katie Johnson-Webb, horn
• Po-Chuan Chiang, piano

Waltzing Matilda — Austrailian traditional/arr. Joshua Davis

• Randall Faust
• Jena Gardner
• Katie Johnson-Webb
• Caroline Steiger

Sonata for Horn and Piano — Edith Boroff

• I. Rhapsody
• III. Sarabande
• Caroline Steiger, horn
• Po-Chuan Chiang, piano

The Golden Hour for Three Horns and Piano — James Naigus

• Jena Gardner
• Katie Johnson-Webb
• Caroline Steiger
• Po-Chuan Chiang, piano

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BRIEF PAUSE

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Masterclass

Works to be announced

• Cora Waters-Trojniar
• Delaney Drey
• Faust Trio (Delaney Drey, Cadence Johnson, Sierra Miller)

Guest Artist Q & A

Founded in 2017, Cobalt Quartet is a professional horn quartet comprised of four hornists and educators: Jena Gardner, Katie Johnson-Webb, Rose MacKenzie, and Caroline Steiger. In August 2018, Cobalt Quartet won the professional division of the International Horn Society Horn Quartet Competition.

Cobalt Quartet has presented performances and masterclasses at universities and conferences across the United States, most recently at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Indiana University, University of Kentucky, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Later this season, the quartet will perform at the Texas Music Educators Association Conference in San Antonio and at the International Horn Society’s Southeastern Horn Workshop in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Members of the ensemble hold positions at ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´, George Mason University, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and in the United States Air Force Band of the West. Through their performances and masterclasses, Cobalt Quartet is dedicated to educating, engaging, and entertaining audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

Dr. Jena Gardner

Jena Gardner, DMA, is the Assistant Professor of Horn at ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´. She is also the advisor for ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´â€™s music performance majors and the director of the ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´ Community Music School. In addition to teaching, she is an active soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player throughout the state of Illinois and the United States. Dr. Gardner has performed extensively around the world including tours in Europe, Mexico, Japan, and the United States. She has been a guest section member with the Chicago Lyric Opera, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, Steamboat Springs Festival Orchestra horn sections and was acting 2nd and 4th horn of the Louisiana Philharmonic orchestra for the 2012 and 2013 seasons respectively.

Dr. Gardner is a passionate chamber musician and can be heard performing with the faculty ensembles at ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´: the Camerata Woodwind Quintet and the Lamoine Brass Quintet .. She is one of four horn players in the Cobalt Quartet, professional division winners of the 2018 International Horn Society’s Horn Quartet Competition. The Cobalt Quartet performs regularly at international conferences and universities across the United States. From 2010-2015 she was a member of the Arabesque Winds. With that ensemble, she performed concerts and master classes at the University of Madison, Wisconsin, the Sanibel Music Festival, the Wooster Chamber Music Festival and many others.

In 2021, Dr. Gardner was awarded a summer research stipend by the ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´ Foundation and the Office of Sponsored Projects. The project, Overuse Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation in Brass Pedagogy, was presented at the International Horn Society’s 53rd international conference. In addition to this lecture and article on the same topic, Dr. Gardner received a certification in the Essentials of Performing Arts Medicine and now curates the website BrassInjury.com, providing a number of resources to musicians, students, and educators. As an educator and performer, Dr. Gardner is interested in a holistic philosophy of music performance. She frequently integrates anatomy, wellness, and other special topics into her horn pedagogy.

As a recipient of the Early Music America Summer Study Scholarship in 2016, Dr. Gardner attended the Natural Horn Workshop at Indiana University, studying with Dr. Richard Seraphinoff. Previously, she has participated in the Lucerne Festival Academy, the Youth Orchestras of America, New York String Orchestra Seminar, and the Pacific Music Festival. From 2007-09, Dr. Gardner was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and had the privilege to perform under the batons of Bernard Haitink, Pierre Boulez, Mark Elder, Esa-pekka Salonen and many others.

Dr. Gardner completed a Doctor of Musical Arts at Northwestern University under the guidance of Gail Williams and Jon Boen and was involved in presenting the 2016 and 2017 Peak Performance Horn Symposiums. She holds Masters and Bachelors degrees in horn performance from Carnegie Mellon University and Northwestern University respectively. Her principal teachers have included Gail Williams, Jon Boen, Bill Caballero, Dave Krehbiel, and Jennie Blomster.

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Dr. Randall Faust

Randall Faust served as Professor of music at ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´ from 1997 until May 2018--where his teaching areas included Applied Horn, Brass Chamber Music, and Music Theory and hornist of the Camerata Woodwind Quintet and the LaMoine Brass Quintet. Previously, he held appointments at Auburn University (Alabama) and Shenandoah Conservatory of Music (Virginia) where he taught a full range of music courses including Applied Horn, Composition, Music Theory, Electronic Music, and Brass Chamber Music. From 1985-2008, he was on the summer faculty at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. He holds degrees from the University of Iowa, Minnesota State University-Mankato, and Eastern Michigan University and studied at the Interlochen Arts Academy - Interlochen Honors Musicianship Project. Faust's composition teachers include Rolf Scheurer, Warren Benson, Anthony Iannaccone, Peter Tod Lewis, and Donald Jenni.

He has been the recipient of the ASCAPlus Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers every year since 1990. Detailed information on the compositions of Randall Faust may be found at www.faustmusic.com.

His current work entails maintaining a private studio, traveling nationally and internationally presenting master classes and recitals, and working on a wide variety of commissions and composition projects.

Event Schedule

Location
ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´, COFAC Recital Hall, Macomb, IL 61455

Date and Time
Date: Sunday, February 1, 2026
Time: 1:00PM to 5:00PM

Schedule:

1 p.m. – Group Warm-Up

2 p.m. – Western Community Horn Choir; Conducted by Dr. Randy Faust

3 p.m. – Guest Artist Recital: Cobalt Horn Quartet

3 p.m. – Masterclass with members of the Cobalt Horn Quartet

5 p.m. – Event concludes

All events will be held in the COFAC Recital Hall.

Registration is free at 3 p.m. Guest Recital is open free to the public.