Braydon Ross is currently studying at the Yale School of Music with Professor William Purvis and freelancing in the SF Bay Area and New England. Hailing from Northern California, his undergraduate degrees were in music education and horn performance at University of the Pacific’s Conservatory of Music, including modern and historical horn studies with Professor Sadie Glass. Within the month following his graduation from Pacific, Braydon won auditions for third horn of the Santa Cruz Symphony and fourth horn of the Stockton Symphony. He has also performed with the Oakland Symphony, Sacramento Philharmonic, West Edge Opera Festival, Opera Modesto, Merced Symphony, and has been a Horn Fellow for three years with Orchestra Next, resident orchestra for Eugene Ballet. 

Braydon recently won third prize in the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra Instrumental Competition and was a finalist in the Yale School of Music’s Woolsey Hall Concerto Competition. He previously won mock audition competitions at the 2023 Northwest Horn Symposium and the 2022 International Women’s Brass Conference, won the 2023 Concerto Competition at University of the Pacific, and presented a lecture on virtual ensemble audio/video production at the 52nd annual International Horn Symposium. 

Beyond the horn, Braydon was the conductor and student director of the 28/78 New Music Ensemble, and also conducted the Pacific Heavy Ensemble, Pacific Repertoire Orchestra, Pacific Brass Society, and several composition student recitals. As a conductor and music director, he has commissioned and premiered numerous works for chamber orchestra and created unique concert and educational new music experiences. 

An equally passionate educator, Braydon student-taught high school band in the Sacramento area, coached brass and musicianship at Pacific’s Summer Institute, maintained a private studio of horn students in Northern CA, and is currently a Teaching Artist for Yale’s Music in Schools Initiative. He is grateful to his major teachers on horn, William Purvis and Sadie Glass, and for his transformative time at KBHC in 2022.