How They Won - with Kate Warren, Horn
Kate Warren wears a lot of hats—internationally recognized hornist, music educator, and social media powerhouse among them. With degrees from Yale, The New School, and Florida State University, she’s known for her artistry, insight, and dynamic presence both on stage and online.
In this edition of How They Won, Kate shares the story behind an incredible achievement—winning two different auditions in less than a week. She walks us through how she prepared, what she learned, and what it really takes to perform at the highest level.
What position did you recently win and in which orchestra?
Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra Principal horn, Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra 4th horn (auditions 6 days apart!)
How early did you start preparing for this specific audition?
Both about 1 month out from the audition, lists were on the shorter side.
Were most of the requirements pretty standard or were there any unusual excerpts on the list?
Everything was standard repertoire
In the month leading up to the audition, what percentage of your practice time was spent on the audition music vs your other commitments?
Probably around 20%, I had a lot of new ensemble repertoire to learn with the start of school and ended up relying heavily on my fundamentals to execute the playing and my off-the horn studying and practice tools to elevate how I played each excerpt.
In the week leading up to your successful audition, how many hours were you practicing each day?
About 2.5 hours of practicing and 2.5-5 hours of rehearsals each day
Which orchestra are you leaving or are you graduating from a school/teacher?
I am just starting a DM at Florida State University, last year I was teaching full time at Ocean County College in Toms River, NJ and was doing zero professional playing so this year marks a pretty big shift in responsibilities and expectations of my playing!
Do you remember how many excerpts you played in each round?
NFSO asked for the entire list in all 3 rounds, TSO asked for 4 in the first round and 2 section excerpts in the 2nd round
What were the three most important things you did in the week before your audition win that you feel led to your success and why?
- Played in front of as many people as I could, as often as I could, to get comfortable with the performance anxiety.
- Score study/mental practice to save my chops between heavy rehearsals but still get reps in.
- Practiced exclusively with practice tools (metronomes, recordings, drones, etc.).
Did the committee ask you to repeat any excerpts, and if so, what kind of requests did they make?
Yes, requests about style and tempos primarily.
Huge thanks to Kate for sharing her insight and experience with us. You can follow her journey and find more of her work on Instagram and www.katewarrenmusic.com.