Isabelle Puccio

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Major

Biomedical Engineering

Advisor(s)

Philip B. Edelman

Committee Members

Laura Artesani, Scott Burditt, Sabrina DeTurk

Graduation Year

2026

Publication Date

2025

Abstract

To explore and express my experience as a female brass musician, I presented a lecture recital featuring five French horn solo works, each representing a distinct stage in my ongoing journey as both a performer and a woman in a traditionally male-dominated field. These stages: Joy & Innocence, Creative Turmoil, Embracing Ambition, Following Dreams, and Acceptance, reflect key emotional and artistic turning points shaped not only by my musical development but also by my identity as a woman navigating both ensemble spaces and the rigorous world of biomedical engineering.

Through performance, I sought to convey emotions that written words alone could not fully capture, using the horn as both instrument and voice. Each piece served as a vessel for the complex inner experiences tied to gender, resilience, and self-discovery. The recital was further contextualized through engagement with existing literature, allowing for a comparison between my personal experiences and broader patterns found in research on female brass players. This intersection of performance and scholarship highlights both the deeply personal and the institutionally persistent aspects of gender in brass musicianship.

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