Art Mixtape: Symphony musician Molly Norcross pairs music + prints

A single note quietly emerged and floated heavenward in the church, clear, shimmering, beautiful and bright. By the end of the piece, the congregation was in tears. No one ever saw the horn player from her perch in the balcony, but no one ever forgot her performance. That is the power of Molly Norcross, principal French horn player in the Fort Worth Symphony. Hailed by the New York Times as “precise and passionate”, Molly would be right to toot her own horn and tout her tremendous talent. She’s a phenomenal, profoundly mindful musician. Molly brought a similar thoughtful precision to her art + music pairings for this Art Mixtape, with selects ranging from playful strings and poppy paintings, to grand orchestral compositions and sweeping space images. Below, see (and hear!) her choices, which speak for themselves...

I have always been intrigued by the connections between visual artwork and musical compositions—such a cool intertwining of space and time! My work in an orchestra is essentially translating dots and lines on a page into sounds, bringing to life the creative vision of composers (usually long dead). With this project I stuck mostly to those roots, thus also creating a juxtaposition between visual/auditory and past/present. It was fun to scroll through all of this artwork and through my mental catalog of music, seeing where inspiration hit: sometimes the music found the artwork and sometimes the artwork found the music! — Molly Norcross

1. Hallelujah Junction - 3rd movement by John Adams // jsc2012e052676 by Donald Pettit

2. O Magnum Mysterium by Morten Lauridsen // Evening, McDonald Lake, Glacier National Park by Ansel Adams

3. Romeo and Juliet, Op.64 - Act 2: Meeting of Tybalt and Mercutio - Duel - Death of Mercutio by Sergei Prokofiev // Apart Phone by Todd McLellan

4. Capriccio Espagnol, Op.34: IV. Scene and Gypsy Song by Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov // Animal Locomotion: Plate 759 (Bird) by Eadweard Muybridge

5. Symphony No. 3: IV. Molto deliberato by Aaron Copland // AS07-08-1933, a 20x200 Space Edition

6. Druid Fluid — Instrumental by Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer // Growth by Carrie Marill

7. Glagolitic Mass, JW III/9: II. Gospodi pomiluy (Kyrie eleison) by Leoš Janáček // Mountaineer in an Ice Cave of Paradise Glacier, Mount Rainier National Park, Washington, 1925, a 20x200 Vintage Edition

8. Concerto No.5 in E-Flat Major for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 73: II. Adagio un poco mosso by Ludwig van Beethoven, played by Glenn Gould // Resist. by Edel Rodriguez

9. Pini di Roma (The Pines of Rome): I. I pini di Villa Borghese by Ottorino Respighi // Backsplash by Negar Ahkami

10. 6 Bagatelles: No. 3. Allegro grazioso by György Ligeti, played by Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet // Lagomorph by Carrie Marill

The 411 on Molly Norcross

Hailed by Alan Kozinn in the New York times as giving “a magnificent performance: precise, passionate, and supple”, horn player Molly Norcross joined the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra as Principal Horn in the fall of 2015. Previously she held the position of Third/Associate Principal Horn in the San Antonio Symphony for three seasons. She has also performed with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and many others.

Molly received her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School and pursued additional professional studies at the New England Conservatory, studying with William Purvis, Jennifer Montone and Richard Sebring, respectively.

When she’s not playing the horn, Molly enjoys running, cycling, and backpacking, making and eating food, and spending as much time as she can with her family in her native Lancaster, PA.