Courtney Orlando

She would have played the cello if she’d had a choice, but her parents loved the violin and put one in her hands before she knew the difference. Courtney grew up in Kutztown, PA and wanted to be a veterinarian. But music took over early in high school and Courtney decided to go to Temple University. Sometimes music school isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be, though, and for Courtney, she says she became “un-enamored (is that a word?)” playing the same music over and over while trying to perfect excerpts for orchestral auditions. She tried music theory and pedagogy while at Eastman for her masters degree but went back to the violin for a DMA after getting swept up by the Ossia new-music crowd—maybe being a musician didn’t mean having to play in orchestra after all.

Courtney now lives in Brooklyn and freelances in the city while teaching ear-training for half of every week at Peabody in Baltimore. She never got away from her veterinarian dreams and volunteers at the SPCA walking and taking care of dogs.