About

Kristina Mascher-Turner is an internationally acclaimed hornist whose performing career spans orchestral, chamber, and solo work across six continents and more than thirty countries. Hailing from Albany, Oregon, she pursued her training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the guidance of Douglas Hill, continued at the Hochschule Hanns Eisler in Berlin with Kurt Palm, and studied privately with Fergus McWilliam of the Berlin Philharmonic - an immersion in the great European orchestral tradition that would become the bedrock of her musical identity.

Early in her career, Kristina held a position with the Odense Symfoniorkester in Denmark and toured three times as principal horn with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester under Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, and Kent Nagano. She then served six years as principal horn of the Brussels Philharmonic and spent sixteen years as a regular guest with the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, including several years on a full-time contract. She remains active as a guest artist with leading orchestras across Europe, including the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Belgian National Orchestra.

Since 2009, Kristina has been a member of the world-renowned American Horn Quartet - described by the American Record Guide as “the finest brass chamber ensemble in the world.” Together they have toured six continents, received standing ovations at the Hollywood Bowl and at International Horn Society Symposia from Brisbane to London to Los Angeles to Montreal, and produced recordings praised for their technical mastery and communicative fire. She is also a core member of Luxembrass, first-prize winners at the 9th Passau International Chamber Music Competition for Brass Ensembles.

For two decades, Kristina co-led the Virtuoso Horn Duo alongside her husband, composer Kerry Turner. The ensemble performed on stages from Singapore and Cape Town to Prague and Rome, and released a critically acclaimed disc of concertos for two horns and chamber orchestra on MSR Classics. Kristina also appears prominently on Kerry Turner: Complete Works for Horn, Vol. 1 (Naxos, 2020), performing works composed specifically for her, alongside additional recordings on the Albany Records label.

Kristina’s commitment to the broader horn community is equally distinguished. She served as Vice President of the International Horn Society from 2015 to 2021 and is a faculty artist at the Rafael Méndez Brass Institute/Summit Brass in Denver. In 2022 she received the IHS Punto Award, granted in recognition of distinguished contributions to the art of horn playing through performance, teaching, and service. In 2025 she joined the faculty of the KASK Conservatorium in Ghent as Professor of Horn, and has been named a Featured Artist at the International Horn Symposium in Kraków (July 2026).

A life in music has also been a life in the world. Having lived and performed in Europe for more than thirty years, her artistry carries a distinctly European musical sensibility, while her American roots and her ongoing presence in the US horn community keep her perspective genuinely transatlantic. Beyond the concert stage, Kristina is a certified Reiki master, sings with a semi-professional vocal octet, and brings to everything she does the same curiosity and openness that have defined her life in music. She performs on a Ricco Kühn W393X triple horn.

“Joy and confident expertise.”

— Australian press, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Brisbane (2010)

“Artistry of the first order.”

— The Horn Call

From Kristina

My vocation, in the simplest and purest sense of the word, is music. Ever since I first held the horn in my hands, the path of making music my life’s work has illuminated everything else. It has taken me literally around the world - introducing me to extraordinary people, and to another great love: travel. Through countless voyages and years of living in several different countries, I’ve developed a deep enthusiasm for languages, for the particular pleasures of an unfamiliar kitchen, and for the insight that comes from being somewhere new.

What I’ve discovered is that musicians everywhere share the same essential thing: a belief in the capacity of music to speak what words cannot. That recognition - arriving unexpectedly in a rehearsal room or in the eyes of a student hearing something open up for the first time - is what keeps this work endlessly alive for me.

I believe in reaching toward the music with open arms, an open mind, an open heart. I’ve long thought that the great works are not passive - that a concerto or a song, when approached this way, reaches back toward you. You only have half the distance to cover. That idea shapes how I play, and how I teach.

I’m grateful to be here, in exactly this moment. Thank you for joining me.