A Peek into Pierrot, Christine Hoerning, clarinet/bass clarinet

Christine Hoerning is a native New Yorker and Montreal-based clarinetist.

In 2010, Christine won a position with the United States Navy Band. While residing in her native New York, Christine worked extensively in pit orchestras for off-Broadway productions of  A Chorus Line , The Wiz, Evita, Anything Goes, 110 in the Shade, Les Miserables, Annie, Cinderella,  Fiddler on the Roof, Kiss Me Kate, Into the Woods, West Side Story and Seussical among others. A doubler from the age of 12 her primary instruments include clarinets,saxophones, bassoon, oboe, and flute.

She was the winner of the 2012 Long Island Chamber Music Festival Concerto Competition and substituted with the Northshore Symphony Orchestra. Christine was an assistant/woodwind coach for the Long Island Youth Orchestra.

Since arriving in Montreal in 2012, she currently holds a position as principal clarinetist with l'Orchestre Philharmonique des Musiciens de Montreal.  In collaboration with the Montreal Symphony and des Quartier des Spectacles she performed as a s soloist for the promotion of the Montreal Symphony’s Viree Classique summer concert series.  She holds the 2nd clarinet position with L’orchestre de musiciens du monde and has substituted and filled auxiliary clarinet positions with Orchestra of Northern New York. Christine was invited to present at the Crane School of Music discussing performance, practice and organization as a young professional.  Christine appeared as a guest artist at the annual Clarinet Summit at the Crane School of Music in 2011.  In 2013 she was a featured alumnae in a S.U.N.Y Potsdam publication which was also featured by McGill University.

An avid performer of contemporary music, Christine was featured in an experimental theatre piece with Musical Theatre Montreal in their production of The Birthday Party and was featured in the performance of Les Papes Hurlant with Montreal Nouvelle Musique at the 2015 Nuit Blanche Festival working with contemporary composer Rachel Burman.  She performs frequently with composer/conductor Andre Pappathomas and  l’ensemble Mrurta Mersti.

In conjunction with Opera Immediat she has performed in the orchestras of the popular operas De Fledermaus, The Elixir of Love, Aida and Carmen. Christine joined the opera orchestra at LyricArezzo  in Italy in 2014 for their “in concert” performance of Puccini’s La Boheme under the baton of Maestro Stefano Pagliano.

As a freelancer Christine has had the opportunity to work with a variety of musicians and ensembles spanning various genres. Ms. Hoerning participated in the interactive show at the National Arts Center in Ottawa with the acclaimed concert program Video Games Live! In 2012 she recorded all wind tracks for a jazz fusion album with singer Tom Mauro,  made guest appearances with the gypsy-folk band Balkan Kefana.

Currently, she is the founder and artistic director of the Verisimo Collective, a chamber music ensemble which specializes in the merging of chamber music and film. The ensemble performs classical and contemporary chamber music accompanied by original films designed specifically for the ensemble and inspired by the music. For more information of Verisimo visit www.musique-verisimo.com

Are you originally from Montreal? If not what brought you here? 

I am originally from Long Island, New York. I came to Montreal in 2012 to study at McGill and fell in love with the city and decided to stay!

Do you come from a musical family? 

Yes, my grandfather was a drummer (jazz) and his sister was a pianist. Their father was an opera singer back in Valetta, Malta. I have a great great uncle who was principal horn with the Boston Symphony for over 40 years, and his brother and father played horn with the NBC  orchestra and Dallas Symphony.  

Is there a particular composition or composer that is a favorite of yours? 

Stravinsky is definitely one that strikes a chord for me. Shostakovich and Mussorgsky as well. I have a special place in my heart for Russian composers.  Have you always wanted to play your chosen instrument? 

No, I wanted to play the trombone when I first got to choose an instrument, somehow I wound up with a clarinet!  Either way, once I started playing I never looked back.  Do you have a guilty-pleasure pop song? 

I really love oldies, cheesy music from 50's, 60's and 70's.  Anything from the 90's.  Do you have any crazy or strange performance/gig stories? Care to share it?

There was this time, when I was very young, about 14 or 15, where I was playing principal saxophone with a wind ensemble.  In the work we were playing there was a huge, bluesy saxophone solo and the conductor thought it would be a great idea if I stood up and played the solo from memory at the edge of the stage. I was so excited and practiced almost nothing else for weeks. During the concert I stood up walked to the front of the stage and heard "clink" I looked down and saw a screw at my feet, I looked back out into the very large audience and thought "well I hope I don't need that". I started to play but no sound came out, I tried again, nothing. I looked at the audience, raised my arms up and shrugged and sat back down. When I turned the sax over a bunch of keys fell off. I was mortified, but after the concert a bunch of  audience members came up to me an congratulated me on a wonderful solo! 

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Come checkout the amazing team gearing up to present Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire on December 10th at La Sala Rossa (4848 boul. Saint-Laurent). Tickets are $10 at the door or you can snag yours online now for a 10% discount!