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Cello

Maria Crosby

Maria Crosby has performed on stages across the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Lithuania, Armenia, Greece, Russia, Japan and Brazil, and has participated in many orchestral and chamber music festivals, including the Aegean Verdi Festival, the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival, the Pacific Music Festival, the Banff Chamber Music Residency, the Recontres Franco-américaines de Musique de Chambre, the Pine Mountain Music Festival, and Summerfest in Kansas City. Ms. Crosby received her bachelor’s degree from DePaul University in Chicago, and her master’s degree from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She joined the Kansas City Symphony in 2012, and lives in Brookside with her husband, KC Symphony clarinetist John Klinghammer, their dog Leo, and their magnificently fluffy cat Wuss Puss.


Maria Crosby

Maria Crosby has performed on stages across the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Lithuania, Armenia, Greece, Russia, Japan and Brazil, and has participated in many orchestral and chamber music festivals, including the Aegean Verdi Festival, the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival, the Pacific Music Festival, the Banff Chamber Music Residency, the Recontres Franco-américaines de Musique de Chambre, the Pine Mountain Music Festival, and Summerfest in Kansas City. Ms. Crosby received her bachelor’s degree from DePaul University in Chicago, and her master’s degree from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She joined the Kansas City Symphony in 2012, and lives in Brookside with her husband, KC Symphony clarinetist John Klinghammer, their dog Leo, and their magnificently fluffy cat Wuss Puss.

3 words: Betty. Rae’s. Ice cream.

Find yourself a really exceptional teacher, and surround yourself with musicians that are better than you.

Cake. And pie. Can I just be inclusive and go with “dessert?”

Winning the audition for this job! Orchestra jobs are very hard to come by – the competition is intense, and the audition process is grueling and highly stressful. So I am very pleased and extremely grateful to have landed a spot in such a great orchestra.

I’d take Beethoven out for a schnitzel and a cup of 60-bean coffee.

I originally told my mother I wanted to play the violin like my two older brothers. But luckily, after having one violin lesson, I came to my senses and asked for a cello instead.

I would want to be an acrobat in Cirque du Soleil. (Note: I have zero acrobatic ability. That is pure wishful imagining.)

Nope. I am super perfectionistic and impatient by nature, so I really struggled with practicing as a kid. I wanted to be able to play perfectly instantly without having to work at it, and well… that just isn’t how it works. So many of my practice sessions back then ended in tears and a lot of stomping around. They still do sometimes!

Good humor

I have the feeling that I always just kind of knew I would be a musician when I grew up. I don’t recall ever making a conscious choice about it.