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Beginner, Intermediate, AdvancedAbout Kate O.
Musician and educator Kate O. works to meaningfully challenge the status quo in the service of engaging and uniting people through the performing arts. A dynamic violinist, a fierce advocate of contemporary music and promoter of responsible and thorough music education in the city of Los Angeles and beyond, Kate performs at the forefront of today's music scene.
Currently, a teaching artist with YOLA at Expo Park in Los Angeles, Kate uses a blend of Suzuki pedagogy, Creative Ability Development, and mindfulness exercises when teaching children in group and individual settings. This spring she was lucky to join YOLA students and faculty on a trip to Seoul Korea, in conjunction with the LA Philharmonic tour, to work with Korean El Sistema students. Raised as a Suzuki student herself and having received her Suzuki Book 1 certification from former teacher Ronda Cole, Kate hopes to be able to bring music education into communities that don't historically have access to musical training, while also breathing new life into traditional string pedagogy.
Kate received her Masters of Music and Masters of Chamber Music at the University of Michigan where she studied with Aaron Berofsky in 2015, and her Bachelors of Music from Boston University in 2013, where she studied with Bayla Keyes. An active performer, Kate performs regularly in LA in venues such as Walt Disney Concert Hall, RedCat, and the Ace Theater.
While not playing her violin, Kate enjoys traveling to new places, eating dessert first, and perfecting her favorite yoga pose "shavasana."
Reviews
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Kate is an incredible teacher - I cannot recommend her highly enough. I have played violin off and on for almost 30 years, and Kate has worked carefully and thoughtfully to help me with basics that I didn't realize I could improve on that have already changed my playing for the better. Kate has a positive and encouraging approach that inspires confidence and joy in practicing. She is able to clearly break down each element of fingering, shifting, and bowing when I am having trouble. She is a gem and I am delighted to revisit my love for the violin under her guidance.

I have been beyond pleased with Kate. Her energy is calm and encouraging and allows the student to creatively discover how learning works for them. As an adult, having never played ANY instrument before, Kate has been the perfect nurturing guidance on this journey. I've also seen her perform outside of lessons and she is clearly classically trained but pushing the boundaries as an what an artist "should be" which I love as someone learning a skill, to see all perspectives. Kate is on time and professional and I have nothing but positive to say about working with her!!!

My granddaughter (age 13) has been studying violin with Kate for the past two years and I honestly felt as though we'd struck gold after the first lesson. Kate is smart, talented, patient, and an all-around lovely person who has elevated my granddaughter's music studies.
Photos & Videos
6 Photos & VideosExperience
Teaching Artist
Mar 2018 - PresentYouth Orchestra of Los Angeles
Teaches K-12 students after school in group classes, private lessons, orchestra coachings, chamber music, and more.
Teaching Artist
Oct 2017 - PresentPrivate Studio
Teaches K-12 students after school in group classes, private lessons, orchestra coachings, chamber music, and more.
Violin Fellow
Aug 2015 - Jun 2017Community MusicWorks
Always inspired to find new ways to use the arts as a tool for social change, Kate recently completed at two year fellowship with Community MusicWorks in Providence, Rhode Island. The mission of the organization, "to create cohesive urban community through music education and performance that transforms the lives of children, families, and musicians," was reflected in the fellowship program, where she taught a full studio of violin students, performed with the ensemble in residence in spaces from galleries to taco shops with the MusicWorks Collective, and participated in group seminars and workshops. Her experience leading a series of workshops with a quartet in a mental health facility is chronicled in an article for the Log Journal. Other highlights of Kate's CMW fellowship include sight-reading piano quartets with Emanuel Ax (who played electric keyboard!) in a La Lupitas taco shop, organizing annual concerts for her students at the Southside Community Land Trust Plant Sale, and Friday night dinners with Phase 2, a teen group organized around chamber music and discussions of current events both global and local.
Education
Masters of Chamber Music
Sep 2013 - Jun 2015University of Michigan
Masters of Music
Sep 2013 - Jun 2015University of Michigan
Bachelors of Music
Sep 2009 - Jun 2013Boston University
Languages
English
Fluent / Native Proficiency
Certifications
Book 1 Violin Certificate
Jun 2014Suzuki
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