Kirsten Yon

Ms. Yon has been a soloist, concertmaster and performer with numerous professional orchestras across the United States and South America including the Ann Arbor Symphony, the Cuerdas de Enlace Orchestra, the New World Symphony, and the Houston Symphony Orchestra

Kirsten Yon Biography

Kirsten Yon is currently in residence at Texas Tech University where she serves as an Artist-Performer and Assistant Professor of Violin. A sought-after teacher, performer, and clinician, she received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Michigan and the Cleveland Institute of Music before pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. During her degrees, Ms. Yon studied with Stephen Shipps, William Preucil, David Updegraff, and Kathleen Winkler. Additionally, Ms. Yon has worked with Raphael Fliegel, Christopher Teal, and Vaclav Snitil.

The winner of multiple competitions, Ms. Yon has been a soloist, concertmaster and performer with numerous professional orchestras across the United States and South America, including the Ann Arbor Symphony, the Cuerdas de Enlace Orchestra, the New World Symphony, and the Houston Symphony Orchestra. Concertmaster positions held include the Bayou City Chamber Orchestra, the Rice University Chamber Orchestra, and most recently the Rice Chamber Players. Ms. Yon was a founding member of the Champlain Trio, the Athena Quartet, and the Archiano Ensemble, giving concerts and masterclasses throughout the United States and Brazil to critical acclaim. She attended the Meadowmount School for Strings, where she was the first recipient of the Catherine Tait Memorial Scholarship for Teaching and Outstanding Leadership. In her initial year at Texas Tech University, she was honored with a Texas Tech University Alumni Association New Faculty Award for her work at the School of Music. Since the beginning of her professional career, students from both her college and pre-college studios have won numerous solo competitions and awards.

Currently the concertmaster of the Caprock Pro Musica Sinfonietta, Ms. Yon also performs with the Botticelli String Quartet. Her concert schedules have included sold-out solo and chamber music recitals throughout Texas, New York (Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall), California, Minnesota, Michigan, New Mexico, Brazil, Germany, France, and Norway. In May 2005 the Botticelli String Quartet and violist Korey Konkol premiered a work by composer Peter Fischer at the International Viola Congress, held in Reykjavik, Iceland. She has recently toured Brazil with the Botticelli String Quartet and pianist Cristina Capparelli Gerling, traveling to Curitiba, Florianopolis, and soloing twice in her career with the Orquestra de Câmara Theatro São Pedro in Porto Alegre (Brazil).

A frequent violin clinician, Ms. Yon has given masterclasses at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul and the Universidade Federal do São João del Rey (Brazil) in addition to numerous schools in the United States and Honduras. She was also a founder and the faculty advisor of Cuerdas de Enlace (String Connection), a Texas Tech University pedagogical outreach program with ties to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Through the assistance of the United States Embassy in Honduras, Texas Tech University, and private fund-raising efforts, Ms. Yon and several graduate students were able to make two trips to Tegucigalpa, bringing donated and collected musical supplies to the local musicians and children.

During the summer months, Ms. Yon has taught at the Interlochen Center for the Arts as an assistant to William Preucil in the Valade Program and at the Texas Tech University Orchestra Camp. In the summer of 2009, she will be teaching at the International Music Academy in Pilsen, Czech Republic, and in Brazil. Ms. Yon frequently concertizes with her husband, organist and keyboardist Sigurd Øgaard.

To contact Kirsten Yon, email kirsten.yon@ttu.edu