Quartet First in UA’s History to Win International Horn Competition

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — University of Alabama doctoral student Joshua Williams, who was named one of the best horn players in the world last year, is no longer the lone “best of the best” horn player at the Capstone.

Williams now shares the international spotlight with the “Capstone Horn Quartet,” also known as “Tater and the Tots.”

Tater and the Tots became the first University of Alabama horn quartet to win the International Horn Society Summer Symposium Student Amateur Quartet Competition, which was held earlier at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.

The members of the quartet are Matthew “Tater” Meadows, a 23-year-old senior music education major, of Jasper; Antonio Padilla, 21-year-old senior music education major, of Meridian, Mississippi; Anthony Parrish, 22-year-old senior music education major, of Kimberly; and Charlie Snead, a 21-year-old senior music performance major, of  Northport.

“We have some great folks doing some great things,” said Charles “Skip” Snead, director and horn professor in UA’s School of Music. “This is the first time we’ve had a quartet win the international competition.

“I’m incredibly proud of them. They put in a lot of hard work, many hours of preparation. They all play individually very well, but when they get together it’s a really great combination.”

Skip Snead, whose son is Charlie Snead, said Tater and the Tots competed against some of the best student horn players from throughout the U.S. and the world.

In the final competition, they competed against five quartets in a concert for a live audience and a panel of five judges.

Declared the winners, Tater and the Tots were selected to give an additional performance on the final day of the workshop in a special concert where all the winners from the various competitions performed.

Meadows, who picked up the nickname Tater in high school, said competing in the competition, let alone winning it, was a leap of faith for them.

“We put a lot of preparation into it,” he said. “We made the goal to go and compete in a rash decision we made in March after we won the Southeast Horn Workshop back in February at the University of Georgia in Athens.

“We just worked diligently, perfecting some tough pieces we selected, the stuff the professionals would play, and we won.”

The quartet has been playing together for about 10 months. They received a certificate for their win and their reputation in the horn world has crescendoed to the top.