Hunter Sholar – horn

Hunter Sholar joined the Nashville Symphony as fourth horn in 2007. He’s also a member of the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, where he plays second horn during the summer.  

Sholar grew up in Roanoke Rapids, a very small town in North Carolina that had a magnificent band program. He began his professional career by playing extra horn with the North Carolina Symphony during his senior year of high school, while he was studying with Andrew McAfee and Kimberly Van Pelt. In 1999, he earned a bachelor’s in music from Northwestern University, where he studied with Gail Williams, Bill Barnewitz, Norman Schweikert, and Barry Benjamin. While still a junior at Northwestern, Sholar joined the Fort Wayne Philharmonic as fourth horn, a position he held for two years. He then held several temporary positions with various orchestras, including the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (where he served for three years), The Florida Orchestra, and the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra (now the Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra). 

Sholar has been a member of the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, and the Oregon Mozart Players, and he’s played extra horn with the Cincinnati, North Carolina, Kansas City, and Oregon symphony orchestras; the Sarasota Orchestra (formerly the Florida West Coast Symphony); the Chicago Chamber Musicians; and Kansas City’s Summerfest. He’s been a featured soloist with the North Carolina Symphony twice, performing Strauss’s First Horn Concerto and Mozart’s Third Horn Concerto.   

In his spare time, Sholar enjoys hiking, backpacking, playing Scrabble and Ultimate Frisbee, reading, biking, gardening, and running.