Kristina Mascher-Turner

Biography

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. She served six years as Principal Horn of the Brussels Philharmonic and sixteen years as a regular guest with the Luxembourg Philharmonic, and earlier in her career toured three times as Principal Horn with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester under Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, and Kent Nagano. Since 2009, she has been a member of the American Horn Quartet – described by the American Record Guide as “the finest brass chamber ensemble in the world” – with whom she has toured around the globe and recorded for Naxos, Albany Records, and MSR Classics. She is also a core member of Luxembrass, first-prize winners at the Passau International Chamber Music Competition, and co-founded the Virtuoso Horn Duo with her husband, composer Kerry Turner.

A recipient of the IHS Punto Award (2022) and former IHS Vice President (2015–2021), she has been named a Featured Artist as soloist and chamber musician at International Horn Society Symposia in London, Los Angeles, Natal, Kingsville, Montreal, and Kraków (July 2026). Her teaching is grounded in three decades of professional life at the center of European musical culture, shaped by her own formation with Douglas Hill (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Kurt Palm (Hochschule Hanns Eisler Berlin), and Fergus McWilliam of the Berlin Philharmonic.

Since 2025, Kristina holds the position of Professor of Horn at KASK Conservatorium Ghent, and is a faculty artist at the Rafael Méndez Brass Institute/Summit Brass in Denver. Students and young professionals most often seek her out at critical junctures: audition and competition preparation, degree recitals, performance anxiety, and professional turning points. Her approach treats the whole person first – combining rigorous technical frameworks with deep attention to body awareness, breathing coordination, inner hearing, and mental skills, always in service of the story the music wants to tell.

Kristina teaches in English, French, German, Dutch, and Luxembourgish, and has given masterclasses at institutions including the Curtis Institute of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Cincinnati Conservatory, Royal Northern College of Music, Seoul National University, and Sydney Conservatorium, among many others worldwide.

SPECIALTIES:

Deep listening
Audition preparation
Competition preparation
Meditation
Healthy habits
Performance anxiety
Positive inner dialogue

LANGUAGES:

English, German, French, Dutch, Luxembourgish