Horacio Franco: this charismatic Mexican musician has revolutionized the recorder, taking it to new heights and breaking stereotypes along the way.

• Author: Holston, Mark

Horacio Franco harbors no grand illusions about the importance of the simple instrument he has used to gain worldwide acclaim. He would be the first to admit that in the universe of musical instruments, the recorder isn't taken very seriously. "The European recorder, which is what I play," he acknowledges, "is considered the village idiot of the family of musical instruments!" That's because, be explains, in many countries the recorder is thought of exclusively as an inexpensive and uncomplicated way to teach young students the rudiments of music. Franco also believes that the greatest villain of the 20th century may also bear some blame for the recorder's lack of prestige today. "It's true," he asserts. "Adolph Hitler was the one who institutionalized the recorder as a school instrument in Germany. He thought it was easy. In fact, while it is the easiest of all of the woodwinds for just blowing into and getting a sound, it is also by far the most difficult to control. That's what Hitler didn't realize."

Thanks in large part to the impassioned artistry of this charismatic Mexican virtuoso, the humble recorder is finally attracting the attention he believes it has long deserved. In the past two decades, Franco has succeeded in sharing his artistry with symphony orchestras and classical music audiences in Europe, the Far East, Africa, and a growing number of countries throughout the Americas. In Mexico, he has performed with virtually every symphony orchestra and classical ensemble in the land, from such provincial outposts as Queretaro, Aguascalientes, and Coahuila to Acapulco, Oaxaca, and Mexico City.

As an eleven-year-old growing up in a working class suburb of Mexico City, Franco displayed no particular interest in fare on the radio that attracted the attention of his pre-teen friends. "And," he recalls, "I was really a kind of spoiled child. I wanted to become an Egyptologist! I was a real nerd. Then in school one day, the music teacher invited several of us to listen to a girl play Mozart sonata on the piano. I immediately fell in love with that style of music. I forgot about Egyptology!"

Two years later, he entered the National Conservatory and gave his first solo concert just a year later. "I taught myse1f the recorder," he explains, "because my parents didn't have enough money to buy a piano. It was as simple as that. So the recorder was it. It was what we could afford. At the time, the conservatory had no program to teach the...