Valerie Sly

Valerie Sly currently serves as Principal Horn of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. She previously held positions as Principal Horn with the West Virginia Symphony, and as acting Third Horn with the Des Moines Metro Opera. She has performed as Guest Principal Horn with the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco, Detroit, and Atlanta Symphonies, and the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra in New Zealand. In the summer of 2024, she joined the Dallas Symphony on their European tour.

In addition to performing, Valerie serves on the faculties of Samford University and the Alabama School of Fine Arts. In summer 2025 she joined the faculty of Boston University Tanglewood Institute as Co-director of the Horn Intensive. She has also served as program note writer for the Alabama Symphony’s Masterworks and Concerts at the Carver series since 2024. 

As a soloist, she has performed Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings with the Alabama Symphony, as well as Mozart’s Horn Concertos No. 2 and No. 4 at the Vermont Mozart Festival. Her summer festival experience includes fellowships at Spoleto Festival USA, Lucerne Festival Academy (Switzerland), Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and the Colorado College Summer Music Festival. In September 2021, she returned to Lucerne as a member of the festival’s alumni ensemble.

Valerie holds a Doctorate from the University of Colorado Boulder where she studied with Michael Thornton. She received a Master’s degree from the Yale School of Music, under William Purvis, and a Bachelor’s degree from Oberlin Conservatory, studying with Roland Pandolfi.