East Studio Building, JS223
Denise Tryon began as associate professor of music in horn at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in 2023. She was previously professor of horn at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music since 2018.
She joined the famed American Horn Quartet as fourth horn in 2019. Previously, she was fourth horn of the Philadelphia Orchestra and held positions with the Detroit, Baltimore, Columbus, and New World Symphonies. She also served as horn professor at the Peabody Institute from 2007 to 2019.
In 1989, Tryon graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy, and in 1993, she earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) in Boston. She received the Presidential Scholarship while in the Artist Diploma Program at NEC with the Taiyo Wind Quintet, which won the Coleman Chamber Competition and worked with great composers such as John Harbison, Luciano Berio, György Ligeti, and Elliott Carter.
An active and accomplished educator, Tryon is sought after for her master classes. She has taught extensively in the United States, Scandinavia, Europe, Asia, and South America. Beth Graham of the Baltimore Symphony and founder of the Warsaw Horn Workshops said, “In just a few seconds of listening to a student, she can diagnose deep-seated problems and give immediate fixes, often with a healthy dose of humor as well. The transformations she can accomplish in just a short time are truly remarkable.”
Tryon has been a featured artist at many International Horn Society Symposiums and Regional Workshops. She has been a featured artist at the Nordic Hornfest, Blekinge International Brass Academy, Warsaw Horn Workshops, CORNO Brass Music Workshop, and Domaine Forget. Since 2017, she’s been a faculty member at Rafael Mendez Brass Institute in Denver. She is frequently on faculty with Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra.
In 2015, Tryon released her debut solo album, SO-LOW, for which she commissioned four new pieces for low horn and piano. According to Gramophone magazine, “Tryon plays these works with sonorous fluidity and dexterity, ending with a bit of captivating acrobatics.” The American Prize awarded her with a special judges’ citation for Important Commitment to the Music of Our Time.
A Pair of Aces, a duo horn album featuring Tryon and Karl Pituch, principal horn of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, was released in 2017 and won a silver medal from the Global Music Awards.
Tryon commissioned six new pieces for low horn for her second solo album, Hope Springs Eternal, released in 2020, for which she won The American Prize in Instrumental Performance in 2022.
In 2009, she and Pituch founded the annual horn seminar Audition Mode, which focuses on the skills horn players need to be successful in orchestral auditions.