Dr. Mary Ritch, French Hornist
An honors graduate from both the University of Missouri at Kansas City Conservatory (BM ’95) and the University of Southern California (MM ’98), Dr. Ritch completed her DMA in horn performance from the University of Southern California in 2002.
An Illinois native, Dr. Ritch began her study of the horn at 14 with William Scharnberg and at 19 took a hiatus to pursue a career in law. She resumed playing the horn in her twenties and returned to school to complete her undergraduate degree in music performance under the guidance of Nancy Cochran Block. After returning to the horn, Dr. Ritch won many awards, including UMKC Conservatory’s 1994 Concerto Competition, where she performed with the Conservatory Orchestra, and in the International Horn Society’s Midwest Regional Workshops and Sigma Alpha Iota Music Fraternity solo competitions. She also won the Instrumental Studies Division Achievement Award her final year at UMKC. Dr. Ritch was selected to perform in numerous public master classes for such renowned horn players as John Cerminaro, Phil Meyers, Eric Ruske and Randy Gardner. She was principal horn of all of UMKC’s orchestras for three years, USC’s opera orchestra for two years, and performed professionally with the Kansas City Camerata and the St. Joseph Symphony, where she was assistant principal for two years. Dr. Ritch also performed several seasons with the Utah Festival Opera and adjudicated at the Utah State Fair Music Competition.
For her graduate studies, Dr. Ritch relocated to California to study at the San Francisco Conservatory with San Francisco Symphony principal horn David Krehbiel, and at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles with legendary film and television studio hornist James Decker. During her time in Los Angeles, Dr. Ritch enjoyed many eclectic performance experiences as a professional freelancer, including participation in numerous orchestral, opera and chamber music performances, as well as film and television studio recordings. Highlights include: broadcast of her performances of the Brahms Horn Trio and the Beethoven Sextet on KUSC radio; performances at the Hollywood Bowl, Disneyland, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Shrine Auditorium and the Playboy Mansion; solo horn in the Thornton Contemporary Music Ensemble’s performance in The Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella Series for New Music; assistant principal of The American Youth Symphony under Zubin Mehta; and recording the television series “Fantasy Island” and various short-film soundtracks. In addition to her rigorous performance schedule both on and off campus, Dr. Ritch was also librarian and music copyist of the Wendell Hoss Memorial Library of the Los Angeles Horn Club from 1999-2003 and worked with such noted film composers as Elmer Bernstein, Bruce Broughton, and Michael Giacchino to prepare newly-commissioned works for publication by the Los Angeles Horn Club.
Throughout her academic career, Dr. Ritch held memberships in Sigma Alpha Iota, Pi Kappa Lambda national music honor society, the International Horn Society, the National and California Associations for Music Educators, the College Music Society, the Technology Institute of Music Educators, and the Association for Technology in Music Instruction.
After graduation, Dr. Ritch moved to the Antelope Valley, a Mojave Desert community 60 miles from Los Angeles, and reduced her performing and teaching schedule to work as a paralegal and genealogist for law firms. In 2007, she started her own probate genealogy firm, Benefinders.com, which assists lawyers in locating missing heirs.
Dr. Ritch resumed freelancing in 2018, and performed as principal horn with the West Coast Classical Symphonic Orchestra and Wind Ensemble, the Symphony of the Canyons and the Tehachapi Symphony Orchestra. During the summer of 2019, Dr. Ritch toured Prague and Vienna as principal horn of the West Coast Classical Symphonic Orchestra.
In 2019-2020, Dr. Ritch also played in SloCal Horns, a large horn ensemble in San Luis Obispo, California directed by former LA Philharmonic principal horn Jerry Folsom, who inspired her to write her first scholarly article for the French horn academic journal, “The Horn Call.” She has since had three more articles published about LA Philharmonic assistant principal horn Robert Watt, the first African-American horn player hired by a major symphony.
As an aficionado of large horn ensemble music and former curator of the Wendell Hoss Memorial Library of the Los Angeles Horn Club at The University of Southern California, Dr. Ritch is currently involved in preserving the history of The Los Angeles Horn Club and is organizing an event commemorating the Club’s 75th Anniversary proposed for the summer of 2026. More information can be found on her Facebook page, The Los Angeles Horn Club 75th Anniversary Commemoration. To kick off the event, in 2023, Dr. Ritch began publishing a blog on her website lahornclub.org about the history of the Club, in which she is posting biographies of over 81 musicians who were involved in the recording of the Club’s two albums, as well as articles about the history of horn playing in Hollywood. This ongoing project will last over three years and end by the summer of 2026.
Dr. Ritch believes in community outreach, and is committed to giving back by volunteering her time performing in schools, retirement homes, churches and musical non-profit organizations. Since 2018, she has donated her musical talents to West Coast Classical, Symphony of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, California and the Tehachapi Symphony Orchestra. She was also an active member of Columbia Elementary’s PTA (in Lancaster, California), the Daughters of the American Revolution (Los Angeles-Eschscholtzia Chapter) and the Order of the Eastern Star (Palmdale-Desert Rose Star Chapter), in which she served as an officer. In 2023, she was invited to join the Board of the Hot Springs Symphony Guild which provides support for the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and promotes music education in local schools.
In 2021, Dr. Ritch relocated to Hot Springs Village, Arkansas after her husband’s retirement from teaching. She is still actively involved in writing, performing and teaching. She currently plays principal horn in the Hot Springs Concert Band and the Arkansas Master’Singers, and substitute third horn in Little Rock Winds. She also has played first tenor horn in the Natural State Brass Band. She has performed solos at local churches and nursing homes and has performed as principal horn in the church orchestras at Hot Springs Baptist Church and Geyer Springs First Baptist Church.
Dr. Ritch started her own music contracting business in January 2024 and is able to obtain high-quality musicians for any event. That same month she became the Scholarship Committee Chair for the Hot Springs/Hot Springs Village Symphony Guild, which holds annual music scholarship auditions for college-age music students. She has since become their grant writer and Board liaison for the ASO’s educational outreach programs; and in the spring of 2024 was invited to join the Board of the Hot Springs Concert Band .
In May of 2024, she formed her own Christian musical group, Brass & The Bible, performing traditional hymns and inspirational songs on French horn with lyric and scripture recitations by her husband, Tony. By midsummer they had performed at several venues, including churches, missions and senior living facilities, and are currently booked through Memorial Day 2025.
Dr. Ritch is available for teaching horn, all brass instruments and piano. She would also enjoy teaching courses in film music and music appreciation. Dr. Ritch is also a “busker,” and has performed at indoor and outdoor parties and other functions, accompanied electronically by pre-recorded amplified music tracks. Her equipment is completely battery powered and needs no electricity or amplification.
