This website is meant to provide a convenient collection of information for others who are dedicated to or just curious about this wonderful instrument. It also gives me a chance to organise my own finds and document (some of) my heckelphone journey ...

Acknowledgements

Much of this website would have been impossible without the generous help and support by many fellow heckelphone enthusiasts, experts and a few others, whose contributions I am happy to acknowledge here:

• Samuel Andreyev, France
• Michael Finkelman, USA
• Francis Firth, USA
• Thomas Hiniker, USA
• Robert Howe, USA
• Peter Hurd, USA
• Gunther Joppig, Germany
• Georg Otto Klapproth, Germany
• Norman Kuhnert, Germany
• Angelika Lucchetta, Germany
• Maxim Lucchetta, Germany
• John McDougall, UK
• Edith Reiter, Germany
• Ralf Reiter, Germany
• Harry Searing, USA
• Werner Schulze, Austria
• Scott W. Schwartz, USA

About me

I've fallen under the spell of the heckelphone in my late teens, and then took far too long to find an instrument and start playing. Soon after starting to spend significant time on regular practice, I felt the need to learn more about the instrument, its history, and those who write for, play, build, maintain, and care for it. The rest, as they say, is history ... which, in case you are interested, you can read about here.

What else is there to say? I used to play the bassoon, quite intensely, in orchestras and ensembles (woodwind trios, quintets, octets, and other chamber music ensembles), until I decided (at least for now) to devote all the time I have for practicing and playing to the heckelphone. I am also an academic, which may explain my sometimes rather academic interest and approach.

For the first few years of working on this website, I've kept my identity somewhat hidden ... mostly, because I thought I should let the information speak for itself. However, as of late, I've been made aware of the fact that this might hurt the credibility of the information shown here, and by now, I've also published a number of articles on the heckelphone in highly reputable venues, played the instrument in a well-known and truly amazing concert hall and established regular correspondence with many other heckelphone experts, including those at Wilhelm Heckel GmbH in Biebrich. So, it's time to sign this with my name, or actually, with an official and valid pointer to a lot more information about me: www.hoos.ca (my official website).

If you have comments or suggestions, you can contact me at heckelphone@gmx.net or @heckelphon on Twitter.