Dr. Katy Ambrose, Horn

Dr. Katy Ambrose will give a horn Masterclass.

This School of Music event is free & open to the public. 

Artist Bio

Katy Ambrose (she/her) will join the faculty of Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Fall 2026. Currently on faculty at the University of Iowa and previously at the University of Virginia, Ambrose also teaches at the Bay View Music Festival Brass Seminar, in Petoskey, Michigan, and she will be on faculty for the Interlochen Horn Intensive in June 2026.

An avid chamber musician, Ambrose is a member of Mirari Brass Quintet, Lanta Horn Duo, Conica natural horn quartet, and was a founding member of Seraph Brass. She has been featured by the International Women’s Brass Conference, Virginia Arts Festival, Historic Brass Society, and the International Trombone Festival, and is a regular performer and presenter for the International Horn Society. She was recently elected to the Advisory Board of the IHS, as well as serving on the editorial committee for its journal, The Horn Call.

Ambrose had held orchestral positions in the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, Charlottesville Symphony Orchestra, Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra, Northeast Pennsylvania Philharmonic, Albany Symphony Orchestra, and Lexington Philharmonic. She has also performed as a substitute with numerous orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Pops, Kansas City Symphony Orchestra, Daejeon Philharmonic (South Korea), Richmond Symphony, and the Virginia Symphony. She has performed on Natural Horn with Philharmonie Austin, Madison Bach Musicians, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Washington Bach Consort, and Staunton Music Festival. Outside of orchestral music, her favorite memories are performing with Adele on her 2016 World Tour and recording jingles for the Superbowl!

She has been named a University of Iowa “Champion for Student Success” three times, a student-nominated honor, and is a 2025-26 Research Fellow at the George Washington Presidential Library, where she is studying the musical life of Washington’s enslaved huntsman, William Lee.

Katy is looking forward to moving to Bloomington with her husband Carsten, a software engineer and amateur violinist, their 9-year-old twin sons, and their cat, Milo.