Christine Hoerning

Montreal clarinetist Dr. Christine Hoerning is an accomplished performer, director, teacher, and creator across a multitude of genres. An active freelancer, Christine has performed with the Orchestre Classique de Montreal, Kingston Symphony, Lake Placid Sinfonietta, Opera Bouffe de Quebec, Opera FOE, and the Orchestra of Northern New York.

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She is an avid chamber musician who actively performs with wind and reed quintets in both the US and Canada. She also performs regularly as a chamber musician for film scoring classes. She participated in the Long Island Chamber Music Festival at C.W. Post and placed second in their concerto competition. Since then her love of chamber music grew and she became founder and artistic director of an interdisciplinary chamber music collective Verisimo, which has curated performances throughout North America which showcased classical and contemporary chamber music performed in synchronicity with original films. In 2019, the collective launched a concert series entitled Filmprov, which screens original and repurposed silent films accompanied by a live improvisatory soundtrack. Filmprov has performed annually at the LoKo Festival since 2022.​ 

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She is an enthusiastic advocate of new music and participates in commissions, most recently Fabulous as Hell by Dalton Regnier. She also has composed a number of mixed media works for clarinet, film, and electronics including the retelling of Shirley Jacksons iconic gothic novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle. 

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Christine aims to bring the clarinet and activism together as seen through a series of benefit performances for those impacted by war in Ukraine, her work with the International Pride Orchestra, and her LGBTQ-history drag-king concert series. She blends her love of clarinet, live music, and pop culture in drag king performances as her persona "Benny Bübman". Most recently, she founded Friends With Benefit Events, an organization which produces queer fundraising events for local LGBTQ organizations. She also serves on the board of We Are Instrumental whose mission is to improve accessibility to musical education for children in Northern New York.

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She is a frequent presenter, performer, and lecturer at a number of national and international conferences. In 2023 she performed a showcase of Ukrainian clarinet music alongside colleague and collaborator Keilor Kastella at the International Clarinet Associations annual conference in Denver, Colorado. She also presented at the annual NYSSMA conference in Rochester, New York about developing fundamentals in young bass clarinetists. In 2024 she performed with the Canadian Bass Clarinet Association and gave a lecture recital entitled "Queerness and the Clarinet" at the 2024 International Clarinet Associations conference in Dublin, Ireland. At Low Clarinetfest 2025 in Phoenix, Arizona she performed again with the Canadian Bass Clarinet Association and was selected as a headlining artist for Clarinetfest 2025 but was unable to perform due to injury.

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In addition to collegiate teaching, Christine has appeared as a clinician and pedagogue at numerous school programs, festivals, and workshops. She has appeared as a clinician at the Riverside Heritage Regional High School, Laval Senior Academy, Trafalgar School for Girls, and The Study. She has also appeared as a specialist for Selwyn House,  the Quebec Band Directors Association Honour Band Festival as well as conducted the Area-All-State Band for Zone 6. She is the band director for the Union United Youth Music program on Saturday mornings in Montreal.  

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Combining her passions for new music, community engagement, diversity, and inclusion: Christines doctoral research  was the development of the North American Clarinet Repertoire Project which is a a digital resource for the discovery and promotion of contemporary clarinet repertoire written after the year 2000 by North American composers. The main objective of the North American Clarinet Repertoire Project is to provide a comprehensive resource for new clarinet music being written throughout North America on a platform centred around diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. 

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Christine is on the clarinet faculty at the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam and holds degrees from the Crane School of Music, McGill University, and the University of Montreal. 

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Christine Hoerning is an artist for D'Addario Woodwinds, Royal Global USA, and B. Corbin Clarinet Products. She plays a D'Addario Evolution Bb Mouthpiece and D'Addario Reserve Evolution Reeds on her Royal Global Firebird clarinet and Brian Corbin's Kilauea Bass Mouthpiece with D'Addario reeds on her Royal Global Polaris Bass Clarinet. 

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