The Global Hornist: A Jayhawk musician’s mission to perform on all continents

Kyra Sims loves to travel, but her adventures do not always go off without a hitch. Once, sleep-deprived and on her way to Greenville, South Carolina, she boarded and flew on the wrong plane, finding herself in Columbia, South Carolina, instead. 

“Luckily, I was just visiting friends. It wasn’t for a gig or anything, but it’s a fun story,” Sims said. 

The KU School of Music alum has another passion in addition to traveling the world: playing the French horn. In 2026, Sims plans to complete her goal of performing with her French horn on all seven continents, which would make her the first African American musician to do so. As of 2025, she had performed in five continents, 22 countries and all but four U.S. states. 

“I was thinking, ‘What could be like a cool new bucket list item?’” Sims said. “My last big bucket list thing was seeing the northern lights, and I was thinking, ‘What else could I do?’” 

In early 2026, Antarctica will become the sixth continent Sims has performed on. The trip is part of a U.S. National Science Foundation-funded project at Oregon State University called Polar STEAM, which allows artists and educators to embark on a trip to Antarctica to experience a collaborative environment with researchers in the region. The goal is to help raise awareness for polar research. 

While there, Sims will collect recordings of the sounds of the Antarctic environment (wildlife, crunching ice, wind), which she will turn into a music piece when she returns. 

Sims has always had a passion for learning more about the world, and her time at KU helped broaden her horizons even more. 

“I ended up getting a minor in Italian,” she said. “I took an African languages linguistics class for fun, which is one of the hardest courses I ever took there.” 

A full-ride scholarship also helped Sims have the best academic experiences at KU, allowing her to focus on exploring electives and not stress about student loans. 

“I could really just focus on this exploration period and learning about the world and myself,” she said. 

Sims had initially wanted to study music therapy, but Paul Stevens, a since-retired School of Music professor, encouraged her to switch her major to performance so that she could focus on her passion for the French horn. 

Since graduating in 2009, Sims has had a storied music career, performing with artists such as Carole King and Jon Batiste. Her work has also appeared in Tony-, Emmy-, Grammy- and Drama Desk-nominated productions. 

In addition to music, Sims also enjoys writing. She has a blog recounting travel stories and music experiences. 

“I’m hoping the stories will make people laugh but also give inspiration to young musicians to explore the world,” she said. “Also, hopefully they can learn from some of my travel mistakes.” 

If you are interested in supporting talented School of Music students, you can give directly to the music scholarships fund. For more information, reach out to Hannah DePriest, School of Music development officer at KU Endowment, at 785-832-7468 or [email protected].