A native of Eugene, Oregon, Seth Horner is Principal Tuba of the North Carolina Symphony. Prior to moving to North Carolina, he was Acting-Principal Tuba of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) for three seasons beginning in 2014 and has held positions as instrumental faculty teaching tuba and euphonium at Towson University and the University of North Carolina School for the Arts (UNCSA). At the age of 19, he played one year as Principal Tuba of the Colorado Symphony under Marin Alsop, and he held positions as Principal Tuba of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra and the Oregon Ballet Theatre Orchestra. He studied primarily with David Fedderly, Paul Krzywicki, Warren Deck, Michael Grose, and Richard Frazier. Horner won the coveted three-year tuba fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival and School and attended the Music Academy of the West as a fellowship student at age 16. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he was the valedictorian of his class, completed his master’s degree at the University of Oregon with the award for Outstanding Graduate Brass Student, and holds a Graduate Performer’s Diploma from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where he received the Richard Franko Goldman Prize for Performance.
As an orchestral tubist, Horner has performed with a diverse array of eminent conductors including Yuri Temirkanov, Rafael Payare, David Zinman, Susanna Mälkki, Alan Gilbert, Michael Tilson Thomas, Teddy Abrams, Marin Alsop, Leonard Slatkin, Carlos Miguel Prieto, and John Williams. He has played with major orchestras across the United States including The Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He can be heard on albums recorded with the Baltimore Symphony (Bernstein Symphonies 1-3, Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet), Colorado Symphony (Roy Harris Symphonies 3 and 4), and North Carolina Symphony (Strauss: Don Quixote and Walton Cello Concerto). As a faculty member at UNCSA, he recorded Reena Esmail’s brass quintet Khirkiyaan, which was released on UNCSA Media’s debut album Windows. In November of 2022, Horner joined his colleagues in the North Carolina Symphony’s low brass section to perform Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto for Low Brass.
Horner has served as an audition panel member and coach for Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA) as well as Carnegie’s NYO2 since their inception. In the summers he held the principal tuba chair of the Britt Festival Orchestra for seven seasons and has performed with the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra. In 2024 he subbed for Aaron Tindall at the Euphonium Tuba Institute and Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro. He teaches tuba and euphonium privately and has given master classes and recitals at festivals and universities nationwide including the Tidewater Brass Institute, Eastern Music Festival, Appalachian State University, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Eastern Carolina University, Ithaca University, the University of Washington, and Towson University. He served as a sabbatical replacement for Professor Michael Grose at the University of Oregon in the winter of 2023. Horner resides in Durham.