Kerry Turner

Kerry Turner (born October 16, 1960) is an American composer and horn player. Turner is a recognized name in the horn and brass industry. Turner's major ensembles with whom he performs include the American Horn Quartet, the Virtuoso Horn Duo, and the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra. Turner has performed internationally as a soloist and clinician. Turner also sings tenor in a semi-professional octet. Turner transferred to the Manhattan School of Music and received a Fulbright scholarship to study with Hermann Baumann at the Stuttgart College of Music and Performing Arts upon graduation. In 1983, Turner assumed the position of principal horn of the Gürzenich Orchester, Cologne. In 1985, Turner joined the Radio-Tele-Luxembourg Symphony Orchestra and the American Horn Quartet. Turner received the Meir Rimon Commissioning Assistance Fund from the International Horn Society in 1993 to compose Six Lives of Jack McBride for horn, violin, tenor voice, and piano and again in 2004 to compose Scorpion in the Sand for horn, cello, and piano.

Turner's Quartet Nr. 1 won first prize in the International Horn Society's composition contest. The Freden International Music Festival in Germany commissioned Turner to compose a brass quintet titled Ricochet, which become one of Turner's most successful works.

Several notable commissions include the U.S. Air Force "Heritage of America" band (Postcards from Lucca), the Alexander Horn Ensemble Japan (Ghosts of Dublin), the Brass Ensemble of the Symphony Orchestra of Lyon (The Heros), Palisades Virtuosi (Vathek), the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (Concerto for Horn and Orchestra "The Gothic"), and the horn sections of the Houston and Dallas symphonies (The Bronze Triptych). Turner's music, which contains elements of folk music from the British Isles, a Mexican influence combined with his own western American style, and the sounds of North Africa and the Arab world, The Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, and the Chicago Symphony, among others.

Turner has been a guest lecturer in composition at several institutions of music, including the Royal Academy of Oslo, the Academy of Fine Arts in Hong Kong, the Nero House of Music in Osaka, Japan, West Virginia University and the Winterthur Hochschule für Musik in Switzerland.

Solo works

Three Portraits - Solo horn Characters - Solo horn Come Thou Font of Every Blessing - Solo piano The Testament of Saladin - Solo horn Echoes of Glastonbury - Solo horn La Entrada de los Caballeros - Solo horn La Viuda de Salamanca - Solo horn Phantom Shanties - Solo horn Nine Pieces for Solo Horn - Solo horn Caprice - Solo horn The Twelve-Tone Waltz - Solo horn Crossing Union Square - Solo horn The Hunt of the Cheetah - Solo horn