Joy Branagan is a horn player and teacher in the Washington, DC area. From 2017-2019 she was acting Fourth Horn in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and from 2012-2016 she performed as Second Horn in the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Christoph Eschenbach. Joy has been a member of the Vancouver Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Richmond Symphony (VA), Albany Symphony, and New Haven Symphony. She regularly performs with the Harrisburg Symphony, Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, and other orchestras in the DC and Baltimore areas.
Joy spends her summers on the faculty of the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina, and spent 10 years teaching at Bar Harbor Brass Week in Maine. She has also been on the faculties of Towson University in Maryland and St. Mary's University in San Antonio, TX, as well as being Guest Professor of Horn at the University of Georgia in 2014-2015, and Guest Professor of Horn at Shenandoah University in the fall of 2021. She has a private horn studio in Alexandria, VA.
Joy has a Master of Music in Orchestral Performance from Manhattan School of Music and a Bachelor of Music Education from The University of Georgia.
Her teachers were Erik Ralske, of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and Dr. Jean Martin-Williams at The University Of Georgia.
Joy performs on a Ricco Kühn W293 with a large bell and a Stork CMA 14 mouthpiece.
Photo by Rich Riggins
