NCO brings world-wide experience to Band of Mid-America Published Feb. 23, 2005 SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- Sometimes Airmen join the Air Force to see the world, but one Scott AFB bandsman saw the world and then joined the Air Force.Staff Sgt. Peter Hensel, a French horn craftsman with the U.S. Air Force Band of Mid-America, lived and worked in Mexico and Germany, and even studied at premier music schools before deciding to start his military career.Sergeant Hensel, now 42 years old, grew up near the small village of Burr Oak, Wis., a little crossroads with nothing more than a tiny grocery store, a couple of taverns and dozens of farms.He attended a one-room school house, the Burr Oak Evangelical Lutheran School, where he started playing the French horn in fifth grade.(I chose this instrument because) I had a great-uncle who played the French horn, and my mother used to tell me it was one of the most difficult instruments to play. Besides the level of difficulty, Sergeant Hensel was intrigued with the rich history of the instrument.The French horn, in the music world more accurately known as just The Horn, was originally used during hunting by Europeans as a signaling instrument. During this time it didnt have any valves, but since those days, the horn has evolved into a complex design and is used in a wide variety of musical settings.After entering the music world, Sergeant Hensel left the one-room schoolhouse and started at Melrose-Mindoro High School, where he continued to play the French horn.I had a very good band director; he was very encouraging, said Sergeant Hensel said and feels he is one reason he continued to play the horn. Thats when he decided to pursue a degree in musical performance and began his studies at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg, Pa.There was a great French horn professor at Carnegie Mellon that was recommended to me, he said. His instructor, Professor Forrest Standley, had a successful orchestral playing career and had produced several successful players.After completing his bachelors degree, he started graduate study and had a teaching assistantship there. I was only in grad school a year before I decided to leave and go to New York City to hopefully get accepted to the Juilliard School, Sergeant Hensel said. But that wasnt to be the case. Hensel wasnt accepted to the school and started a short-lived career waiting tables.I was a waiter at a couple of restaurants and took lessons from retired Argentinean horn professor Antonio Iervolino in hopes of trying again to get accepted to the school, he said. But reality set in and Sergeant Hensel knew he wouldnt get any better through lessons alone and needed to find full-time work in performance.A former high school teacher, Gordon Campbell, contacted me and told me about an opening in the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, Sergeant Hensel said. Campbell had been living there and playing in the Mexican National Symphony across the city for some time.I went to Mexico, listened to a rehearsal, then played in a performance that night for nearly 1,000 people, he said. I was told I was a little shaky with my playing so they gave me a little more time, and then I got accepted. At 23 (years old) it was a great adventure.I was there a year playing in the orchestra, he added. He also talked about the exciting time it was in Mexico City, because the World Cup was hosted there that year, and it was less than a year after the deadly 8.0 magnitude earthquake in Mexico that left more than 30,000 people dead.Sergeant Hensel wasnt the lone American in the orchestra though; there were about 15 Americans in the group. Six of them lived in a large house where they rented rooms from a man who called his home Gringoland. He would only rent to Americans, he said.After spending a year in Mexico, he returned to New York to try again at Juilliard. I finally got accepted into the Master of Music program.But his adventures didnt stop there. After completing his graduate studies and receiving his degree from Juilliard, he became a freelance musician and traveled around the United States and in areas abroad such as Greece and Bulgaria. Later he was accepted into the summer music program at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. While performing in the summer program an opportunity arose to audition for an orchestra in Germany. He got accepted and signed a one-year contract. Like Mexico, being in Germany was an exciting time. It was only a couple of years after the (Berlin) Wall had fallen, so there was still a substandard of living there. But Sergeant Hensel was still excited about the opportunity.The (German) orchestra performed operas, ballets, symphony concerts, operettas and Broadway musicals, he said. My first performance while I was there was Jesus Christ, Superstar; it was surreal to hear it performed in the German language.After his contract was up with the orchestra, Sergeant Hensel moved to Berlin to do freelance work for about five months.After my freelance work I felt like I needed a more solid future. I had auditioned with the Presidents Own Marine Band in Washington, D.C., when I was still in New York City, but I didnt get accepted, he said. That experience reminded me of the service band route. He also started to realize he was getting older and the military had an age limit for enlisting. I saw a recruiting ad for the Army and decided to give it a try.He was easily swayed to put on the Army greens because it paid for all of his past college loans, he was able to be assigned in Germany, and he was offered an enlistment bonus.I was happy to take advantage of what they had to offer, he said.After serving more than five years in the Army, he decided to put on the Air Force blue.I was separating from the Army when I auditioned for the Air Force Band. I was the runner-up for the opening in the premiere band in D.C., he said. Rather than offering me that position, they gave me a choice of a regional band assignment. Sergeant Hensel chose Scott AFB because part of the Band of Mid-Americas touring region included his childhood home in Wisconsin.I was grateful to come back to the area Im from, he said. During my entire musical career, my family has never had the opportunity to see me perform. Now they see me rather frequently. Air Mobility Command News Service is a service of the Internal Division Office of Public Affairs 503 Ward Drive, Room 214 Scott Air Force Base, Illinois 62225-5335 618-229-7821