Grammy Award-winning hornist Marian Hesse, a member of the renowned Chestnut Brass Company (CBC), is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist on the modern horn and antique brasses including the natural horn, sacbut, saxhorn and the rare quinticlave. With the CBC, she has toured and performed in all 50 United States, El Salvador, the Cayman Islands, Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Germany and Hungary. With the Chestnut Brass, she has been a finalist in the esteemed Naumberg Chamber Music Competition and a semi-finalist in the Erwin Bodky Early Music Competition.

She has performed as principal horn with the Colorado Pro Musica, the Colorado Chamber Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Boulder Bach Festival, the Philadelphia Virtuosi and the Kansas City Camerata. She has also performed with the Colorado Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, and numerous orchestras in the eastern United States. With the Chestnut Brass, she recorded more than a dozen recordings including the Grammy Award–winning CBC recording Hornsmoke, and the Billboard charting recording Tippecanoe and Tyler, too. Other recordings include those with the Mozart Orchestra, the Philadelphia Virtuosi, the soundtrack of the Ken Burns Civil War television program and NFL Films and PBS documentaries, a video game recording with the Colorado Symphony, and the soundtrack recording of the Ken Burns Civil War television program. Ms. Hesse served three terms on the Advisory Council of the International Horn Society , with two terms as Secretary Treasurer. She has served on the boards of the International Horn Competition of America (IHCA) and the American Hunting Horn Society. Ms. Hesse has been an adjudicator for the IHCA and the Jeju (Korea) International Brass Competition. Ms. Hesse has presented masterclasses at West Virginia University, Fresno State, Interlochen, Juilliard, Ohio State, and the University of Oregon, among others. A graduate of Yale University (MM) and the University of Northern Colorado (BM), she also holds certificates in Non-Profit Management and Fundraising from the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania.