Hugo Valverde '16 is grateful. After two full seasons as second French horn for the MET Orchestra in New York City, he still calls it "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
"This is the greatest musical and professional experience of my career," he said. "I cannot explain how lucky I feel every time I take my horn out of the case and make music with the best orchestra and singers in the world, on the world's greatest stage. I may sound biased, but it's completely true!"
Valverde's music career started when he was just 7 years old, in rural Costa Rica. He was too small to play his first-choice instrument, the tuba. And other students had already taken all the music school's saxophones. The school director suggested the French horn, and Valverde—despite not even knowing what the instrument looked like—accepted.
His talent led him to Lynn University, Rice University and, ultimately, the MET—all by the age of 22.
Pursuing opportunities
"I didn't have any doubt that Hugo would do well," said Gregory Miller, distinguished artist in residence in French horn at Lynn's Conservatory of Music. "He was always pursuing opportunities."
Valverde learned about Lynn as a high school senior performing with the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica. Miller was visiting the orchestra to teach a master class, and Valverde asked him for a private lesson.
"He told me he had a half hour only," Valverde said. "It ended up being a two-hour lesson."
Miller saw how earnestly Valverde wanted to improve, how genuinely interested he was in being a professional musician.
"I told him he needed to come to the U.S. to study," Miller said.
It was already April. Valverde had no visa and had not taken the language exam, TOEFL. Costa Rica had none scheduled. So, after cramming for several weeks to tighten his English skills, Valverde boarded a bus by himself for a 12-hour trip to Panama to take the exam. He passed. Two weeks before Lynn's fall semester started, the consulate in Costa Rica issued his visa, and Valverde bought a plane ticket.
After graduating from Lynn, Valverde auditioned for the premier French horn program in the country at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston. A year later, his visa status was coming to an end, and Valverde decided the time had come to play professionally.
"I only had a certain amount of money to spend flying to auditions, staying in hotels, paying for meals. I couldn’t afford 10 auditions. I thought, 'Am I ready for the MET, for the top orchestra in the country?'"
"In shock"
The answer was yes.
The MET was unlike any other audition because the repertoire is opera, not typically played by orchestras or symphonies, and rarely taught in conservatories. Valverde knew none of the pieces. Three months of intense practice followed; then Valverde got the invitation to audition in New York.
After several rounds, the MET narrowed the pool of applicants from 60 musicians to him and one other candidate.
The MET holds blind auditions, and hopefuls perform opera excerpts from behind a screen. Valverde played for 20 minutes, then waited alone for the results.
"I won. I was in shock," Valverde said.
Since then, Valverde has made a home at the MET. He notes his most memorable on-stage moments as his very first opera in 2017 and his first as a tenured member of the company in 2019. But all of his performances have brought him greater perspective on music and life.
"This experience has made me a better person," he said. "Because of it, I learned to appreciate all the wonderful things in life. This includes time with my family, my incredible colleagues, my friends and the work of being an artist. The greatest lesson I've learned so far is to be thankful for every single opportunity I have to make music. It's that simple."
