Pickle Pairs: Ethan and Ryan Mash
For recent School of Music High School graduates Ethan and Ryan Mash, twins from Durham, North Carolina, playing the horn is just the beginning of their love for the instrument. Over the past several years, they have not only experimented with and developed their skills in repairing and modifying horns but have also designed and created mutes for horn players. Now, they are beginning undergraduate degrees in computer science and hope to pursue careers as horn makers and horn product designers.
While they had been exposed to music their whole lives by their horn-playing father — who plays for fun — their musical journey really started in the sixth grade when they chose to play the horn themselves. “We thought it would be really cool to play the same instrument as our dad,” explained Ethan. “Horn is one of the most complex instruments,” added Ryan. “It’s very rewarding because of how challenging it is to play.”
As soon as they started playing, they also became interested in horn repairs and would watch YouTube videos to learn the basics. By the eighth grade, where their middle school band director entrusted them to clean instruments, their interest only grew.
After transferring to UNCSA for their senior year of high school, the Mash brothers really hit their stride. With the encouragement of associate professor Maria Serkin, Ethan and Ryan dove even deeper into horn repair. “At UNCSA, there is a lot more creativity — our interest in repairs was really encouraged by Dr. Serkin,” Ryan said. There was also a greater need at UNCSA, where students own their instruments and have the responsibility to maintain them.
Now the two have grown their horn repair business to include over 300 tools in their workshop at their parents’ home in Durham. “We put every scrap of money we can on getting tools — once we have tools, we can do repairs and earn more money to buy more tools. It’s a cycle,” explained Ethan.
It was also at UNCSA that they embarked on their latest endeavor — designing and developing horn mutes. Mutes can be prohibitively expensive for students but are necessary for professional playing; when Serkin showed them a handmade wooden mute she'd purchased, Ethan and Ryan were inspired to create an even better model. "At first, we thought, 'We'll take this design and make it plastic,' " recalled Ethan, "but the prototypes were imperfect. We think we can do better and make it mathematically perfect."
The brothers then threw themselves into hundreds of hours of research and development. “I taught myself how to code in Python (a high-level programming language) and figured out how to take these equations and put them into a set of points I can input into my 3D printer software,” Ryan explained. After nearly 100 test prints, they were finally happy with their product. They are now selling them to horn players across the continent and at the International Horn Symposium in Montreal.
Looking forward, Ethan and Ryan plan to continue their horn repair and mute-making business while simultaneously pursuing their college degrees in the fall. Ethan will attend Yale University for computer science and Ryan will attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for computer science and music.
Being apart will be both a challenge and an opportunity because, as Ryan explains: “We have different strengths and they work together extremely well … If we hadn’t had each other, we would not be anywhere near where we are today.”
This article appeared in the 2023 issue of Scene.
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October 16, 2023