A Chicago native, Jesse Clevenger comes from a musical family of horn players.
Mr. Clevenger has celebrated four seasons as Assistant Principal hornist with the Houston Symphony and three seasons with the Sun Valley Music Festival. He has appeared as a guest player with the Chicago Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and as guest principal of the Toledo Symphony. He has worked with notable conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Andris Nelsons, Michael Tilson Thomas, Leonard Slatkin, and Christoph Eschenbach.
Mr. Clevenger recently made his concerto debut performing the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante as a featured soloist with the Orqeusta Sinfónica del Estado de México in Toluca, México. An avid chamber musician, he’s also performed with the Greenbriar Consortium and the Houston Symphony Chamber Players.
As an educator, he has given masterclasses at several schools in Houston and around the USA. Additionally, he teaches privately via the Sun Valley Music Festival in the summers. Currently, he maintains a private horn studio with students of all ages.
He is eternally grateful to his parents, Alice Render and Dale Clevenger, who were his early instructors in both music and horn performance. He received a BM in Horn Performance from Indiana University with Jeff Nelsen and a MM from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music with William VerMeulen. Additionally, he was a fellow at Tanglewood and Spoleto.
In his spare time he likes to read chamber music, take road trips, play with pit bulls, and study renaissance art and music. An avid reader, Mr. Clevenger relishes reading Russian literature and biographies of the great composers.