Join us on Sunday, May 5 @ 3pm at the Lexington Opera House for our May concert, Cornucopia, featuring horn soloist Melanie Kjellsen.

Melanie Erena Kjellsen, horn, is an orchestral performer, chamber musician, and educator. Currently the Visiting Assistant Professor of Horn at the University of Kentucky, her duties include teaching applied lessons, overseeing graduate student instruction, conducting the UK Horn Choir, and performing with the UK Faculty Brass Quintet.

As an orchestral musician, Melanie has performed with the Chicago Symphony, Kalamazoo Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Peoria Symphony, Quad City Symphony, South Dakota Symphony, Virginia Symphony, Lexington Philharmonic, Naples Philharmonic, and Wisconsin Philharmonic, among others. For the 2018 season, Melanie performed as guest principal horn with La Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de la República Dominicana in Santo Domingo. From 2014-2016, she was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Following, Melanie joined the Axiom Brass Quintet, a position she held from 2016-2018. As a member of this Chicago-based chamber ensemble, she toured the country presenting masterclasses and concerts at institutions including Florida State University, Northern Michigan University, University of Arkansas, and Adelphi (NY) University, as well as a two-week residency in China. Melanie was a founding member of the Wabash Winds, a wind quintet comprised of Civic Orchestra members who, under the mentorship of Yo-Yo Ma, designed and presented educational concerts that reached thousands of Chicago-based students over the course of two years.

A devoted music educator, Melanie has over fifteen years of private instruction experience. From 2019-2021, she taught horn at Illinois Wesleyan University. For three summers, Melanie was on faculty at the Luzerne Music Center, located in New York’s Adirondack Mountains, where she taught privately, coached chamber music, and performed on the Faculty Artist Concert Series at the Luzerne Chamber Music Festival alongside members of the Philadelphia Orchestra. She has served as the Educational Outreach Coordinator at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI), organizing community chamber performances and enhancing audience engagement. She has also been on faculty at the People’s Music School in Chicago.

Recently, Melanie was named a 2024 Mentor in the International Women’s Brass Conference Mentorship Program. She will also join the IWBC as a Production Editor. Active in the commissioning of new works to grow the horn repertoire with an emphasis on supporting historically underrepresented composers, she is a member of the first-ever Chromatic Brass Collective New Works Consortium, currently funding two new works for brass by composers Madison Anglin and Katahj Copley, as well as the commissioning consortium for Sure-fire, a new concerto for horn and wind ensemble by Catherine Likhuta.

Melanie holds an M.M. from Northwestern University and B.M. and B.M.M.E. degrees from the University of Kentucky. Her primary teachers are Gail Williams, Jon Boen, and David Elliott, with additional mentorship from Daniel Gingrich. Outside of music, she enjoys reading, cooking, and spending time with family. She currently resides in Lexington with her husband, two young children, and beloved rescue dog.