Molly Norcross, Third Horn

Hailed by Allan Kozinn in the New York Times as giving “a magnificent performance: precise, passionate, and supple”, horn player Molly Norcross enjoys a varied career encompassing orchestral, chamber, solo, and teaching activity. She begins her appointment as Third Horn of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in the 2024-2025 season. Previously she served as Acting Associate Principal Horn of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for five years, while holding the tenured role of Assistant Principal/Utility Horn. She could be seen in the CSO’s Music Hall performances, live-streamed online content, and many chamber music concerts with woodwind and brass quintets  throughout the Cincinnati area. Prior to her time in Cincinnati, she held the roles of Principal Horn of the Fort Worth Symphony for four years and Associate Principal/Third Horn of the San Antonio Symphony for three years. During her time in Texas, she was a regular performer in numerous chamber music series throughout the state, including Basically Beethoven, Mount Vernon, Wedgewood, and Spectrum.

In the summers, Ms. Norcross currently performs as Principal Horn of the New Hampshire Music Festival and Co-Principal Horn of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. 

She has appeared as Guest Principal with orchestras across the country, including the New York Philharmonic, Utah Symphony, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Naples (FL) Philharmonic, and has performed in diverse roles with numerous other orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra and Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Ms. Norcross has enjoyed highlighting the solo horn repertoire with several orchestras, including Britten’s “Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings” with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Richard Strauss’ First Horn Concerto with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and New Hampshire Music Festival, Richard Strauss’ Second Horn Concerto with the Music Academy of the West as a winner of the concerto competition, Messiaen’s horn solo movement “Appel interstellaire” in the epic “Des canyons aux étoiles…” with the Juilliard Orchestra for the reopening of Alice Tully Hall, and Gilbert Amy’s “La temps du souffle III” and William Schuman’s “The Young Dead Soldiers” with the New Juilliard Ensemble.

Her expanding teaching career started in earnest with coaching brass players in the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra during the school year and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Brass Institute each summer, and grew to include teaching for a semester at the University of Kentucky, and then becoming an adjunct faculty member at Miami University and University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). She has given masterclasses at CCM, Baldwin Wallace University, and Ohio University, and looks forward to upcoming classes at Manhattan School of Music and The Hartt School.

Ms. Norcross completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at The Juilliard School, with William Purvis and Jennifer Montone respectively, and pursued additional studies at New England Conservatory with Richard Sebring.