About

Renée’s mission as a human and horn player is to define a home for classical music in the 21st century. As an active freelance musician in the Chicagoland area Renée has performed with the Chicago Composer’s Orchestra, Northbrook Symphony, Skokie Valley Symphony, and Chicago Children’s Choir, amongst others. Renée’s wanderlust has taken her as far as Italy, where she toured with the Gil Evans Chamber Jazz Ensemble, a headlining group at the Umbria Jazz Festival in 2012; and Germany, where she studied the German language as a DAAD summer exchange fellow at the Universität Potsdam and worked with members of the Berlin Philharmonic.Through her work in the Arts Leadership program at the Eastman School of Music Renée participated in Music for All, a chamber music outreach program that brought classical music to new audiences and performed at a variety of venues from classrooms to local bookstores. She has performed as a regular member with many chamber groups including the #quartet, who won the International Horn Quartet Competition at the Horn Symposium in 2015. Renée earned her Bachelor of Music degree in horn with a minor in German Studies at the Eastman School of Music, where she was awarded the prestigious Performer’s Certificate as a student of W. Peter Kurau, and her Master’s degree at DePaul University under the tutelage of Chicago Symphony hornist Jim Smelser.

Music

Renée has performed music of virtually all styles and backgrounds. From motets with the Eastman Brass Guild, musical theater and light opera with the College Light Opera Company where she was principal horn, jazz with the Gil Evans Chamber Jazz Ensemble, pop/rock with My Brightest Diamond, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Chicago Children's Choir, solo horn on Stravinsky's Firebird with the DePaul Symphony Orchestra, and Mahler's Fourth Symphony with both the Eastman Philharmonia and the Northbrook Symphony. Most recently she has performed many chamber works including the Brahms Horn Trio, Beethoven Sextet, and Reinecke Trio.

Videos