Next to being fluent in German, English, and French, Dern had to learn how to read, write, and speak fluent Dutch in order to pursue her studies at the ArtEZ Conservatory.
Dern was selected as one of 12 composers out of over 300 applicants to participate in the annual ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop with Richard Bellis in 2016.
Dern was one of the 10 female composers to present their work at the first installment of the Future Is Female concert series in May 2017. She conducted the Hollywood Chamber Orchestra led by Mark Robertson throughout the entire second half of the concert.
Dern has extensive knowledge of virtual instrument programming. She has worked for commercial sampling companies such as Cinesamples, SonicSmiths, and Big Fish Audio as a sample editor, Kontakt programmer, and beta tester.
Dern is a frequent collaborator of the soundtrack label "MovieScore Media", owned and operated by Mikael Carlsson.