2020-04-01_Readers_Digest

well with stage fright,

but I got dry mouth—

that’s a common side

effect of stage fright. It

is extremely difficult to

whistle when you don’t

have a wet whistle.

Were you applying lots

of lip balm backstage?

Oh, absolutely! We

all have our favorite

brands. I’m a Blistex

Medicated guy myself.

Are you a whistling

addict?

I do it all the time. I

whistle walking to and

from the cafeteria at

work. I definitely annoy

my wife, whistling

while doing the dishes.

Do you whistle any-

thing written in the

past 300 years?

I’ve been listening to

a lot of Grateful Dead

lately, so you’ll hear me

whistle that if you hang

out around me. RD

Gassner took first place

in the Stage 2 Classical

Pre-Recorded Accompa-

niment Division in this

biennial contest held in

Pasadena, California.

This was your first

major contest. What

made you want to enter?

I whistled “Danny Boy”

in a St. Patrick’s Day

talent show, and I won.

That was the first indi-

cation that I could go

on to an actual whis-

tling competition.

But here you went

with the third movement

of Mozart’s Horn

Concerto no. 4. That’s

a lot to take on, isn’t it?

I’m a French horn

player and I had per-

formed several of Mo-

zart’s horn concerti in

the past, so I was pretty

familiar with the music.

Were you nervous?

Generally I do pretty

MASTERS OF

MUSICAL

WHISTLING

COMPETITION

brad gassner, age 34,

St. Clair, Missouri

40 april 2020 | rd.com illustration by John Cuneo

Reader’s Digest

I WON!