Christine Hoerning

A New York native based in Montreal, Christine Hoerning is an accomplished clarinetist, director, teacher, and creator whose work spans many genres. She serves as Lecturer of Clarinet at the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam. Christine performs in orchestras throughout New York and Quebec and has appeared with the Orchestre Classique de Montréal, Kingston Symphony, Lake Placid Sinfonietta, Opéra Bouffe du Québec, and Orchestra of Northern New York. She is the founder and artistic director of Verisimo, an interdisciplinary visual chamber-music ensemble. Her exploration of visual music has also led her to compose works for clarinet, electronics, and visual media. Christine was a headlining artist at the 2025 International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest, where she featured her original chamber work We Have Always Lived in the Castle for flute, clarinet, cello, electronics, and visual media. She also performs as Benny Bübman, the clarinet-playing drag king. Christine earned undergraduate degrees from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, a Master of Music from McGill University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from Université de Montréal.

Christine Hoerning performs on the Royal Global Firebird Soprano and Polaris Low C Bass clarinets, paired with Royal Global barrels and her D'Addario Evolution and B. Corbin Kilauea C3 mouthpieces. She is also an artist for D'Addario and B. Corbin Clarinet Products. The Firebird, she says, "just helped me to effortlessly achieve this rich, fluid, dark, compact sound that I've been working towards. The intonation, sound quality and comfort of the instrument is exactly what I am looking for." Of her bass setup, she adds, "The Polaris Low C Bass allows me to have a big, thick, but flexible sound. The upper registers of the Polaris are effortless." A long-time Buffet player, she came to Royal first through her bass clarinet, and was struck by how much "the Royal Firebirds felt like what I wanted my old Buffet sopranos to feel like" — calling it "love at first play." Playing Royal Global "has granted me the effortlessness of creating my ideal sound" across the orchestra, chamber music, and her cabaret performances as clarinet-playing drag king Benny Bübman. As a teacher, she values being able to recommend a high-quality, affordable option to students whose budgets had previously limited them — and treasures being part of "the Royal family," working alongside "kind, inclusive and generous colleagues."