I Found My Horn is a book by British columnist Jasper Rees, first published in hardback in 2008, and adapted for the stage later in that year.

The book

It is a semi-autobiographic story that follows Rees as he turns forty and decides to reunite himself with his French Horn, an instrument he gave up upon leaving school, along with his mentor Dave Lee (horn player)

Dave Lee

Dave Lee may refer to:* Dave Lee , British horn and Wagner tuba player associated with the Michael Nyman Band* Dave Lee , British DJ, producer, and remixer often better known as Joey Negro* Dave Lee...

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Rees was already writing a regular arts column for the Daily Telegraph and the early beginnings of his book can be seen in a 2005 article. Soon after publication it was adapted for radio and broadcast as Radio 4's 'Book of the Week'.. It was also released in the United States, under the amended title of 'A Devil to Play'.

The play

After his wife heard and recommended the Radio 4 broadcast, actor and playwright Jonathan Guy Lewis

Jonathan Guy Lewis

Jonathan Guy Lewis is an English actor who has played Sgt. Chris McCleod in Soldier Soldier, Chris Hammond in London's Burning, Ian Bentley in Coronation Street, and Anthony Woods in Holby City...

 approached Rees about a stage version . The two writers teamed up with director Harry Burton, and the one-man show premiered at the Aldeburgh Festival

Aldeburgh Festival

The Aldeburgh Festival is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the Aldeburgh area of Suffolk, centred on the main concert hall at Snape Maltings...

. It then opened at the Tristan Bates Theatre, where it was reviewed as 'very funny' and 'a celebration of the joyous, life-affirming power of music' by The Times,. In 2009 the show transferred to the Hampstead Theatre

Hampstead Theatre

Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in the vicinity of Swiss Cottage and Belsize Park, in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. In 2009 it celebrates its 50 year anniversary.The original theatre was...

, where a four-star review from The Guardian called it 'delightful', 'wryly funny' and 'infinitely touching', before it appeared in the 2009 Autumn season of the Chichester Festival Theatre

Chichester Festival Theatre

Chichester Festival Theatre, located in Chichester, England, was designed by Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, and opened by its founder Leslie Evershed-Martin in 1962. Subsequently the smaller and more intimate Minerva Theatre was built nearby in 1989....

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The show was lit by Jeremy Coney

Jeremy Coney

Jeremy Vernon Coney MBE is a former New Zealand cricketer, who played 52 Test matches and 88 ODIs for New Zealand, captaining them in 15 Tests and 25 ODIs. He was one of New Zealand's most successful batsmen, at least by average, and he made 16 fifties, but centuries often eluded him and he had to...

, the former New Zealand cricketer.

The horn Rees plays is by Josef Lidl

Josef Lidl

Josef Lidl is a Czech manufacturer of musical instruments. It was founded in what was then Moravia in 1892, and is the oldest manufacturer of instruments in the Czech republic....

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