Kate Arndt, violin
Violinist Kate Arndt, from Boston, Massachusetts is currently pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts degree under Ani Kavafian. Kate holds Masters degrees from Yale in both Music and Musical Arts and completed her undergraduate studies at New England Conservatory of Music under Miriam Fried. Kate has performed as a featured soloist with several orchestras, at venues such as Boston’s Symphony Hall, Fordham University and New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall. In recent years, Kate has been active in Europe, including participation in the Gstaad Menuhin Festival and in the Kronberg Master Classes and Concerts in Germany as an active participant, in both cases studying with Ana Chumachenco. Kate also performed in the IMS Prussia Cove Masterclasses in Cornwall, UK, studying with professors Philippe Graffin and Andras Keller. In the US, Kate has attended several prestigious summer programs, including Music@Menlo, with renowned artistic directors Wu Han and David Finckel, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, performing alongside David Schifrin and Frank Morelli, the Taos School of Music, where she worked with the Shanghai, Miro, Brentano and Borromeo string quartets, the Perlman Music Program, studying with Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho, Li Lin and Merry Peckham, and the Sarasota Music Festival, where she was featured in 2019 as a guest soloist with the festival orchestra.
An avid chamber musician, Kate has performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as the Curtis Institute and the University of New Orleans with her current group, the Vera Quartet. In addition to premiering a commissioned piece on the Indian Hill Music Chamber Series, the Vera Quartet will perform at Music from Angel Fire and the Colorado Music Festival this summer. As a recurring artist in the Mellon Music Festival, Kate regularly performs in Davis, CA. Kate also attended the Four Seasons Winter Workshop at East Carolina University in 2015, 2016 and 2018, where she collaborated with world-class musicians such as Robert McDonald, Ida Kavafian, Colin Carr, Misha Amory, Hye-Jin Kim and Ara Gregorian. Her former group, the Isolde Quartet, was featured on NPR’s From the Top for the 15th anniversary taping in Jordan Hall, and the group also received an honorable mention at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. As winner of several chamber competitions, Kate has performed with the Boston Trio at Jordan Hall and with her former piano trio as winners of the Yale Chamber Music Competition. In March of 2016 she was selected to perform as a guest artist with the Borromeo String Quartet as winner of their annual chamber music competition.
Passionate about education and community service, in 2012-2013, Kate participated in From the Top’s Center for the Development of Arts Leaders, a yearlong program of service and music leadership, working with inner city elementary school students taking part in the MusiConnects program in the Boston area. She currently teaches as part of the Music in Schools Initiative at Yale University.
Kate’s academic interests focus on studying the contributions of women in classical music, an area she hopes to expand through featuring works by female composers in future performances.