“a beguiling melt in the mouth sonority….a silver purity enhanced by a magical instinct for cantabile”
BBC Music Magazine
Born in London, Katherine studied at the Royal Academy of Music and furthered her studies in the USA at Indiana University where she also acted as teaching assistant to her professor, Mauricio Fuks. She has since returned to Indiana as a guest Professor and been made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Katherine has been Leader of the Irish Chamber Orchestra since 2002 and regularly directs from the leader’s chair. As director and soloist, with the ICO, she has toured Germany, China and Singapore, and appeared at festivals including the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, and the Kilkenny Arts Festival. Katherine directs ICO national tours, which take the orchestra all over Ireland. She works closely with composers of contemporary music and this Autumn will be performing a piece written for the ICO and solo violin by David Fennessy. In 2020, Katherine released a solo CD recording with the ICO of Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires and Schubert’s Rondo and received glowing reviews.
In 2020, Katherine co-founded the Solas string quartet, a group who enjoy devising accessible programmes that include many genres. They will be touring Ireland throughout 2024. They recently performed Charlotte Bray’s “Ungrievable Lives” inspired by the Migrant Crisis at the Dublin International Chamber Music Festival.
Katherine has recently started composing and last season the Solas quartet performed “Pass The Hat”, Katherine’s latest work, which explores power play within a group. Her composition “unwound” for violin and loop pedal was premiered at the Killaloe Festival in 2023 and “the bassist” for cellos and bass will premiere this Autumn on an Irish Chamber Orchestra tour.
Her group “The Far Flung Trio” with accordionist Dermot Dunne and bassist Malachy Robinson is celebrating its tenth year. The name reflects their sense of fun and eclectic mix in the programming. Their album can be found on all the usual platforms and their next album will be released later 2024 on the Orchid Classics label.
Katherine was Artistic Director of the SCS Killaloe Music Festival for four years and is a regular guest at chamber music festivals in Ireland and the UK, most recently at the Whittington Festival and Malvern Festival. This year, she will be a soloist at festivals including the West Wicklow festival and the Dublin International Chamber Music Festival and a guest with the Hebrides Ensemble in Edinburgh.
Katherine was a member of the Academy of St Martin in the fields for many years touring with the group across the globe. She has been a regular guest leader with orchestras including the Manchester Camerata, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and most recently the Northern Sinfonia.
She has been a guest soloist with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and Concert Orchestra and gave the world premiere of Benjamin Britten’s Double Concerto at the Aldeburgh Festival in the UK. Teaching is a big passion for Katherine and she has been involved in countless innovative student projects over the years. She is currently a Lecturer at the MTU Cork School of Music and Artistic Director of the ConCorda chamber music course.