Felix Klieser has been described as a virtuoso and has performed all over the world, but born without arms he plays the instrument with his left foot.
"It was a little miracle," Felix says, that he became a French horn player at all. Not because of his limb difference but because when he asked to learn the instrument, aged four, his family had no idea what he was talking about.
"I'd never been to a concert, I'd never met a horn player and in my family there was no one making music. My parents said: 'Err, what is a French horn?" he told the BBC's Access All podcast.
His family did some research and lucked out. In the German city of Göttingen, where Felix grew up "there was one music school and at the music school there was one horn teacher".
Felix enrolled and a life-time of problem solving began. As for the lack of fingers, Felix realised he could kick his left leg up and angle his foot to use his dexterous toes just as well.
"When I see myself it looks very interesting and very spectacular. But when I play by myself it's a very comfortable position," he says. "It's something I can do for hours."
The biggest challenge was not an obvious physical one, it was making the French horn actually sound like a French horn. It consists of a 12ft brass tube, which curls round into an open "bell" where the sound comes out. Horn players put their right hand in the bell to create the familiar, haunting, sound. Without a hand to put in the bell, Felix realised he would have to create the tone entirely through the way he played.
"There was no teacher who could teach you how to play the horn in this way. It was more trial and error. I've just my lips, I've just my air," he says.
"You have to control the air in a different way and take care of the position of your lips, of your tongue. This was maybe the most challenging thing, I practised a lot." This technique sets Felix apart from other players.
It has taken him all over the world, to the south coast of England where he recently completed a two-year residency with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and even on tour with the singer, Sting.
But he says the biggest lesson he learned goes back to his early years. "The most important thing, when I grew up, is to learn to solve problems," he says.
Felix is currently performing Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 4. in London at the Royal Albert Hall for his BBC Proms debut.
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