Kathryn Mehrtens, Horn

Kathryn Mehrtens is an active freelance hornist in the Philadelphia area. She is 3rd horn with the Pennsylvania Ballet Orchestra. As the 1st horn in the Broadway show pit orchestras of the Academy of Music, the Forrest and Merriam Theaters, she played Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, West Side Story, Cats, Miss Saigon, Beauty and the Beast, Wicked, The Lion King, Spamalot, and numerous other touring Broadway productions. Ms. Mehrtens has played principal horn with Opera Delaware, and has also performed with Opera Philadelphia, the Delaware Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, West Jersey Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra 2001, and the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic.

Kathryn was on the faculty of The College of New Jersey from1984 until 2023, where she was Instructor of Horn and Director of the Horn Ensemble. She hosted a number of masterclasses featuring such artists as Arnold Jacobs, Philip Farkas, Barry Tuckwell, Bill Capps, and Randy Gardner. Recently, Kathryn was an orchestral audition judge for at the International Women’s Brass Conference. She has an extensive private horn studio with students from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. Many of her students have gone on to such schools as Eastman School of Music, The Curtis Institute of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Peabody Conservatory of Music, Cincinnati conservatory, Northwestern University, and Longy School of Music, followed by successful careers in performance.