The appointments bring a former Metropolitan Opera Orchestra horn player and five other musicians to Kansas City as Matthias Pintscher continues to shape the orchestra during his tenure as music director.
The Kansas City Symphony has appointed six musicians for its 2026/27 season, including new principals in the horn and double bass sections.
Roy Femenella joins as principal horn after five seasons as a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, while Landon Honolka takes over as principal double bass. The other newcomers are violinist Yun-Chung Lin, piccolo and flute player Alejandro Lombo, trumpeter Joon Park and double bassist Michael Zogaib.
The appointments come as the Kansas City Symphony continues a period of development under music director Matthias Pintscher, who took up the position at the start of the 2024/25 season. His contract was extended earlier this year through the 2033/34 season.
Founded in 1982, the Kansas City Symphony has grown into a significant presence in the American orchestral landscape, with 80 full-time musicians and its home at Helzberg Hall in the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Its international profile has also expanded in recent years, including its first European tour in 2024, with appearances at venues including the Berlin Philharmonie, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie.
Two new principals
Femenella, a New York native and Juilliard graduate, spent five seasons with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and has also appeared as guest principal horn with the San Francisco Symphony. His orchestral work has included performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Before joining the Met, he was a fellow at Miami’s New World Symphony from 2017 to 2020.
Honolka arrives in Kansas City after serving as principal bass of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic and Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Oklahoma Baroque Orchestra. An Albuquerque native, he studied at Oklahoma City University and later at the Juilliard School with Joseph Conyers, principal bass of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
The four other appointments add musicians across the string, woodwind and brass sections.
Taiwanese violinist Yun-Chung Lin joins the first violin section after completing her master’s degree at Juilliard. Alejandro Lombo, formerly piccolo with the Florida Orchestra, becomes the Kansas City Symphony’s new piccoloist and has previously performed with orchestras including Philadelphia, Detroit, Houston and Milwaukee.
Toronto-born Joon Park joins for the 2026/27 season as acting third/utility trumpet, while Michael Zogaib enters the double bass section following one-year contracts with the Phoenix Symphony and Houston Symphony.
The Kansas City Symphony is entering its 45th season. Pintscher’s arrival in 2024 followed Michael Stern’s 19-year tenure as music director, and the latest appointments form part of the continuing evolution of the orchestra under its new artistic leadership.
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