Wind in her sails

Auckland Philharmonia's Gabrielle Pho has been devoted to the French horn since the age of 3.

- by RICHARD BETTS

“Am I big enough yet?” Gabrielle Pho would ask her mother every year. At 3 or 4, she wasn't. Aged 9, though, the Virginia-born Pho was finally an appropriate size to start French horn lessons.

“I don't remember a time when I didn't know what I was going to play,” says Pho, now principal horn with Auckland Philharmonia. “My mother played as a teenager to a good standard, and she had a pretty decent instrument that she'd kept. I don't know if it's because it looks cool and shiny or because of the sound it makes, but I never even considered playing anything else.”