Victoria Knudtson

Minnesota-born horn player Victoria Knudtson joined the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra as Assistant/Utility Horn during the 2019/2020 season. Born to a pianist mother and singer father, Knudtson found her artistic voice on the horn when she was 16 years old after a coincidental meeting with her first teacher, Wayne Lu.

In 2014, Knudtson began studying with Jeffery Nelsen at Indiana University. Thanks to the horn department at the Jacobs School of Music, she also benefited from the orchestral pedagogy of Dale Clevenger and studied early music performance on the natural horn with Richard Seraphinoff. During her undergrad, Knudtson also spent six months in Vienna, Austria, studying the quintessential and historic style of Vienna horn-playing. While pursuing her undergraduate degree, she served as principal horn of the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic and graduated in December of 2017.

In March 2018, Knudtson joined the St. Louis Brass (a quintet started in 1964 by then-members of the SLSO) and toured around the country with them until they disbanded during the 2020 lockdown. Knudtson began an artist diploma at the Curtis Institute of Music under Jennifer Montone and Jeffery Lang before acquiring the position with the SLSO in September 2019. While in Philadelphia, Knudtson held a core horn position with the ensemble Symphony in C and performed frequently throughout the city with various chamber groups. As a soloist, she performed with the Indiana University Symphony Orchestra and the Yale New Music Ensemble, and frequently appeared in recitals on the Curtis stage. She ardently enjoys collaborating with composers and performing new music, especially with friends.

Knudtson was a horn fellow of the Boston Symphony’s Tanglewood Music Center in 2019, and at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan with music director Valery Gergiev in 2018. Knudtson plays a leader/teacher role in the St. Louis Symphony’s Peer-to-Peer program and serves as a faculty member at Heartland Horn Camp in Carol, Iowa.

When not on stage or in the practice room, Knudtson is an avid latin dancer in the styles of salsa, bachata, and Brazilian Zouk, and enjoys getting outside to garden or go for walks in St. Louis’s beautiful green spaces.