Violinist Kristin Oppenheim Mortenson grew up in San Antonio, Texas and studied at the University of Texas at Austin as a student of Leonard Posner, former concertmaster of the NBC Symphony and Dallas Symphony. She completed her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Louisiana State University, studying with Sally O'Reilly. Kristin currently is a first violinist in the Waco Symphony, is Assistant Concertmaster of the Temple Symphony, and also plays as a substitute musician with the Austin Symphony, Austin Opera, Abilene Philharmonic, and Fort Worth Symphony, with whom she performed on the 2018 Grammy-nominated recording of Pictures at an Exhibition.
From 2001 to 2015, Kristin was Associate Concertmaster of the Topeka Symphony in Kansas, before relocating to the Waco area. She has previously been a first violinist in the Austin, Baton Rouge, Wichita, and Des Moines Symphonies, and performed in Graz, Austria as a member of the AIMS Festival Orchestra. Kristin was on the string faculty of Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan from 1986 to 2017, and served as Concertmaster of the Blue Lake Festival Orchestra for twenty years. She also was Concertmaster of the Kansas Ballet Orchestra (formerly Metropolitan Ballet of Topeka) for over 10 years.
As a soloist, Kristin has collaborated with the Blue Lake Festival Orchestra twice, performing the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante and Paganini Moto Perpetuo, as well as the Kansas State University Orchestra, playing the Beethoven Triple Concerto and the Flint Hills Chamber Orchestra and Midway Camerata, performing the Bach Double Concerto.
Kristin has enjoyed performing with popular entertainers as diverse as Ray Charles, Bernadette Peters, Mannheim Steamroller, Andrea Bocelli, Dionne Warwick, Bob Hope, Marvin Hamlisch, Doc Severinsen, Rich Little, Shirley Jones, Anne Murray, Wayne Newton, Asleep At The Wheel, and bands Kansas and The Eagles.
