Brooklyn-based horn player Nicolee Kuester enjoys splitting her time between experimental sounds and music from the chamber and orchestral canon. A member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, she also appears with a variety groups in New York City, including the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The Knights, Talea Ensemble, Illinoise on Broadway, and the New York Pops; and further afield has performed with Alarm Will Sound in St Louis (with whom she won a GRAMMY award for Best Small Ensemble Performance); Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris; A Far Cry in Boston; and the San Diego Symphony. She is co-founder of MEANINGLESS WORK, a performance series that happily meanders between sounds, performance art, text, and movement theater.

Nicolee holds undergraduate degrees in horn performance and creative writing from Oberlin College & Conservatory and graduate degrees in contemporary music performance from UC San Diego. From 2016-2018 she was the horn fellow with Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, and has spent many summers immersed in chamber music at the Marlboro, Yellow Barn, and Lucerne Music Festivals.