She is a horn player and teacher born in Virginia and who studied the horn from the time she was 10 years old. When she was 14 she gained her first taste of playing with an orchestra when she was given a place in the National Symphony Youth fellowship Program.
She went on to study at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute and Music Academy of the West in the summers of 1992 to 1995 and followed by entering Juilliard School of Music. Participating in many competitions she was the winner of the National Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artist Concerto Competition twice, the GM/Seventeet Magazine Central Concerto Competition, the 1996 Paxman Young Horn Player of the Year, the Philadelphia Concerto Soloists Competition and in 1995 she became an ARTS Awardee and became a Presidential Scholar.
In 1996 she was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and that same year she became third horn for the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. She also started to play as a freelance musician and has since appeared with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera and on Broadway shows such as Swan Lake, Beauty and the Beast, The Music Man and Titanic.
From 2000 she was Principal Horn of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and in addition to that she became the youngest woman ever to hold that same position with a major US orchestra when she joined the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra in 2003. She has also held that position with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and became a member of The Philadelphia Orchestra in 2006.
Appearing in many festivals she has been heard at the Spoleto Chamber Music Fesitval, the Marlboro Music Festival, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and also at the International Women’s Brass Conference.
Outside the world of the classical environment she performed “God Bless America” at the opening game of the season for the Cardinals in the Busch Stadium in 2004 and has also backed Metallica in concert with the Orchestra of St. Lukes.
Recordings she features on include Britten: Still Falls the Rain and Penderecki: Fonogrammi-Horn Concerto-Partita-The Awakening of Jacob-Araklasis-Da Natura Sonoris along with Gabrieli by the National Brass Ensemble, Peter Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 “Pathetique”/Dumka and Peter Tchaikovsky: Brass Quintets No. 1 & 3 by The Philadelphia Orchestra.
In the field of musical education she has been an Adjunct Professor of Horn at the Southern Methodist University. In 2006 she joined the faculties of Juilliard School and the Curtis School of Music.
Holiday Brass recordings
Angels We Have Heard on High (Traditional French/James Chadwick/Edward Barnes)
Music Masters 01782 (CD: Holiday Brass featuring Susan Slaughter)
Trumpet – Susan Slaughter
St. Louis Children’s Choirs – Concert Choir
Sources:
- http://www.horncamp.org/jm.htm
- https://www.philorch.org/your-philorch/meet-your-orchestra/musicians/jennifer-montone/
- http://www.philorch.org/styles/poa02e/www/bios.php?page=montonejennifer
- http://www.laphil.com/music/artist_detail.cfm?id=3260
- http://gigshowcase.com/EndUserFiles/984.pdf
- http://www.slso.org/cpp/articles/cpp2.htm
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/4625594-Jennifer-Montone?type=Credits&filter_anv=0