ABOUT THE ARTIST
Hornist Katey J. Halbert’s vibrant personality and passion for music inspire both as a teacher and performer. Residing in Northwest Arkansas, she is currently the Visiting Assistant Professor of Horn at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. In addition to maintaining the studio and running studio class she also performs with the faculty wind quintet, Lyrique Quintette, and the faculty brass quintet, Brassworks. Previously, she has served on the faculty of Grand View University, Central College, Muskingum University, Marietta College, and Mount Vernon Nazarene University. Dr. Halbert has also maintained a successful private studio since 2009 and her students have gone on to participate in many prestigious youth symphonies, all-state ensembles, and summer programs including Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, Ohio and Iowa’s All-State Ensembles, the Columbus Youth Symphony, and the Quad Cities Youth Symphony. She spends her summers on faculty at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Twin Lake, Michigan.
At home on the concert stage, she has performed as a soloist, orchestral musician, and chamber musician throughout the world. In the past year she has performed in Bangkok, Thailand with the Lyrique Wind Quintet, as principal horn in the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas, and as a soloist for the International Women’s Brass Conference. During her career she has also performed with the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, Arkansas Philharmonic, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus, West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Michigan Philharmonic, Quad Cities Symphony, Central Ohio Symphony, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony, Southeast Iowa Symphony, Newark-Granville Symphony, McConnell Arts Center Chamber Players, and Opera Project Columbus. As chamber musician, she is currently the horn player and Executive Director of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the Wild Prairie Winds which was internationally recognized in 2020 when awarded the top prize in the Gates of Hope Chamber Competition. She has been a soloist with ensembles such as the Muskingum Valley Winds, Muskingum University Collegiate Choir, Bowling Green Men's Chorus, Central College Symphonic Wind Ensemble, and the Grand View University Choir and will solo with the University of Arkansas Symphony Orchestra is 2023.
As a clinician, she has been a visiting guest artist at schools such as Western Illinois University, Drake University, Grinnell College, Luther College, Iowa State University, Texas Women’s University, and Wright State University. Additionally, she has worked high school clinics such as the CorDallas All-Region Clinic, the University of Iowa Hawkeye Honor Band, St. Ambrose University Honor Band, and many others throughout Ohio, Iowa, Oklahoma, Texas, and Michigan. In the summer of 2022 she was a guest clinician and judge for the Music and Marching Arts International Association in Bangkok, and also gave clinics for the ASEAN Youth Winds, and the Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music while in Thailand.
An advocate for female equality in the music community, Dr. Halbert is Treasurer and a member of the Board of Directors for the International Alliance for Women in Music, and has been a professional mentor for the International Women in Brass. In 2018 she worked alongside composer Catherine McMichael to create “Borealis: An Essay in Three Movements for Horn and Piano” that was premiered at the International Women’s Brass Conference in 2019, and then recorded by Dr. Halbert in 2020. She has also presented programs of all-female representation at the College Music Society's Central Regional Conference, Grand View's Faculty Research Colloquium Series, the Women Composer's Festival at Hartford, and the Music by Women Conference held at the the Mississippi University for Women.
Dr. Halbert received her Doctorate in Musical Arts in Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Iowa under the direction of Jeffrey Agrell. Her previous schools include Ohio State University, Bowling Green State University, and the University of Michigan.