Giovanni Punto

Jan Václav Stich, better known as Giovanni Punto (28 September 1746 in Žehušice – 16 February 1803 in Prague) was a horn player from Bohemia and a pioneer of the hand-stopping technique which allows natural horns to play a greater number of notes. Early life Stich was born in Žehušice in Bohemia. His father was a serf bonded to the estate of Count Joseph Johann Thun und Hohenstein, but Stich was taught singing, violin and finally the horn. The Count sent him to study horn under Joseph Matiegka in Prague, Jan Schindelarz in Munich, and finally with A. J. Hampel in Dresden (from 1763 to 1764). Hampel first taught Stich the hand-stopping technique which he later improved and extended. Stich then returned to the service of the Count, where he remained for the next four years. At the age of 20 Stich and four friends ran away from the estate. The Count, who had invested heavily in Stich’s education, dispatched soldiers with orders to knock out Stich’s front teeth to prevent him ever playing the horn again, but they failed to capture the group, and Stich crossed into Italy. Punto around Europe On arriving in Italy, Stich changed his name to Giovanni Punto (an approximate Italianisation of