Kate Arndt

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 and New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall. In recent years, Kate has been active in Europe, including participation in the Gstaad Menuhin Festival in Switzerland and in the Kronberg Master Classes and Concerts in Germany as an active participant. Kate also performed in the IMS Prussia Cove Masterclasses in Cornwall, UK. 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. In 2021, Kate received first prize at the CSU Bakersfield Competition for her recording of Michael Friedmann’s Fantasy for Solo Violin.

Kate has performed extensively with several prominent orchestras in the Northeast US, including with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra as a guest musician, and as a member of the New York Classical Players. During the 2023-24 season, she was the Acting Assistant Concertmaster for the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. She was recently appointed Principal Second Violin with the Colorado Symphony. She also holds the position of Assistant Concertmaster with the Colorado Music Festival orchestra, where she has been performing the past three summers.

A passionate chamber musician, Kate has performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as the Curtis Institute of Music and the University of New Orleans with her former group, the Vera Quartet. In addition to premiering a commissioned piece by composer Alexis C. Lamb, the Vera Quartet recently premiered a new work by Elise Arancio, in addition to performances at Music from Angel Fire and the Colorado Music Festival as a quartet-inresidence. 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, where she collaborated with artists such as Robert McDonald, Ida Kavafian, Colin Carr, Misha Amory, Hye-Jin Kim and Ara Gregorian. Her former group, the Isolde Quartet, received an honorable mention at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Kate has collaborated with several existing chamber ensembles, including the Calidore, Callisto and Kodak String Quartets, and as winner of several chamber music competitions, she was selected to perform as a guest artist with the Borromeo String Quartet and with the Boston Trio.

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.