Debbie Brown Engel, AS '80, is bursting with enthusiasm about music. "Sometimes when I'm playing, it's like I'm swept away," enthuses Engel, a French horn player with the Delaware Symphony. "It's just awesome. At the end of the concert, I feel like getting up and high-fiving all the musicians. Yeah, horns! The horn babes did it!"

An orchestra performer in renowned Philadelphia theatre shows, a member of a brass quartet, an education director and librarian, a national amateur tennis champ, a boys' high school tennis coach, a mother of three teenagers and recently remarried (she met her husband over the Internet), Engel talks in enumerated points, tossing her arms around, for emphasis. She says she always knew she wanted to be a music performer and teacher, and she tells how she pestered her parents to purchase a piano as a 9-year-old.

"The piano wound up in the family room of our Newark home, and I think my practicing drove my father bonkers while he was trying to watch television," she recalls.

By the end of seventh grade, Engel had come to view the piano as a lonely instrument and quizzed her school's band teacher on what other instruments she could master.

"He gave me a trombone for the weekend, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get it back in the case," says Engel. "When I returned it, he handed me the French horn instead."

After nearly a year of exasperating practice sessions on the instrument, everything finally clicked.

What drew Engel to the world of music was that her teacher, Bill Byerly, who always made her practices fun, invited her to play the horn in his jazz band. At Christiana High School in Newark, Del., Engel was chosen for all-state band and chorus. She received a horn scholarship to UD, where she studied music education. In return for financial aid, Engel accompanied instrumentalists at the college. She was awarded the Theodore Berger Music Award that salutes both academics and music excellence and was a Presser Scholar her senior year.

Engel auditioned for the Delaware Symphony in her senior year, shortly after the orchestra decided to contract fully professional players. She tried out for the third and fourth horn slots and was selected to play third horn.

Four years later, she was elevated to principal horn, which she played until 1996, when she elected to be an alternate player, due to family commitments. Other opportunities arose to play with Opera Delaware and the Fairmount Brass Quartet and to perform in the pit at such theatrical shows as Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, 1776 and The Kiss of the Spiderwoman in Philadelphia. She later returned to the Delaware Symphony as third horn.

The French horn is really two horns in one, she says. The player's left thumb works a valve that allows two sets of tubing (17 feet long) to be used. One set of tubes is shorter and is used for playing brilliant, high notes. The longer set is used for the warm, lower notes.

"It's difficult to play, since you have alternate pitches with the same fingering," explains Engel. "You need a good ear. I like it because it's a very mellow instrument, which is why my favorite piece is the Brahms' Horn Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano. It's a very romantic piece of music with nice lyrical horn lines."

Engel refers to herself as the "warm-up queen," since she works the muscles in her lips for about 45 minutes before each performance. It's similar to getting ready for a sports event, she says. Rehearsals for concerts and shows tend to run about 2-1/2 hours.

Physically, playing is a real effort, she says. She plays the horn off her lap, putting stress on her shoulders and back, which can be a grueling experience. While performing for the theatre production of Miss Saigon, Engel says she was a regular visitor to a chiropractor and masseuse. She works out religiously at a local YMCA, attacking the Stairmaster and Lifecycle for aerobic benefits, plus there's a regimen of sit-ups to strengthen her abdominal muscles.

Engel joined the administrative staff of the symphony in 1999 as director of education and librarian. Her goal was to expand the existing education programs, and she has added such new programs as "Move and Sing Strings" for children ages 3-6 and open dress rehearsals for high school students. Over the past year, she's recruited more than 11,000 youngsters from more than 50 schools to participate in educational programs and attend concerts put on by members of the symphony.

When asked about her most successful competitive moment in her illustrious career, Engel mentions a U.S. Tennis Association's mixed doubles competition in Palm Springs, Calif., in 1993.

Still playing competitively, Engel coaches the boys' team at Dickinson High School. She views it as a great outlet, allowing her to bang balls around to relieve her frustrations.

"I see a lot of similarities between my tennis career and my music profession," says Engel. "They're both very competitive, yet when you're playing well, it's very relaxing and rewarding. When I started both endeavors, I caught a spark and it fanned out into a lifelong passion. I hope to be able to pass that along to the kids I'm working with today."