Mary Beth Orr Bridges Both the Folksinging And Classcal Worlds with The Singing Horn

American folk singer Mary Beth Orr, a hornist, issued her enchanting album, The Singing Horn, under Big Round Records in March 2025. It is a beautiful album that combines classical French horn playing with American folk singing traditions, which together form a distinctive voice that touches hearts so deeply.

Its first five tracks create a cycle of song, interweaving classical and folk traditions that merge in the otherworldly beautiful “Oh Death.” In the 26-track program, Orr’s two talents are unleashed, for she sings and she plays on horn, plaiting her bucket from a broad musical range—from the old familiar “I’ll Fly Away” to the Songs of the Wayfarer of Mahler. This record is more than a record—it is a personal unfolding of a book of a life of motherhood, love, death.

An active member of the Grand Rapids Symphony 3rd Horn, Orr has wide professional exposure having played for Charleston Symphony and Detroit Symphony, including top prizes of major competitions. Singing Horn already earned prestigious Silver Outstanding achievement awards from the Global Music Awards 2025.

With the Dagar’a album named “birthing song”, and tagged by Orr as “a love letter to my life, and to yours”, the record is a sonic testimony of life’s bittersweet nuance. What listeners might enjoy most, though, would be the album annotations, personal essays that intensify the emotional investment in the record.

It’s a rich, evocative piece that excellently juxtaposes rough worlds with fine ones, classical worlds with folks ones, and gets us all speculating about the tales being borne on voice and on horn.