Please contact Katy Ambrose to schedule teaching and performing engagements.

For introduction at events or in programs, please use this (shortened) biography:

“Dr. Katy Ambrose is Assistant Professor of Horn at the University of Virginia. She holds positions of principal horn of the Charlottesville Symphony, fourth horn of the Delaware Symphony Orchestra and principal horn of the New Orchestra of Washington, and she plays regularly with the Richmond Symphony and Virginia Symphony Orchestras. Ambrose has created and cultivated several chamber ensembles, including co-founding Seraph Brass, Izula Horns and the natural horn quartet Conica. She served as founding Operations Coordinator for the Boulanger Initiative, an organization working toward greater inclusivity in music through performance, education, and commissions, by womxn composers. Dr. Ambrose’s research analyzes the role that the horn has played in the lives of musicians of African and Creole descent in America, and looks at how the horn was utilized in the lives of enslaved persons; the role it played in the advent of the Black brass band tradition during and after the War of 1812; its use in minstrel bands and offshoots during the Postbellum period; and accounts of jazz horn players and racist audition practices of the 20th century.”

Photos by Dan Addison. All images subject to copyright. Written permission is required to use any photography.