Musician and educator Kate Outterbridge works to meaningfully challenge the status quo in the service of engaging and uniting people through the performing arts. A dynamic violinist, 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.

 

 

Since moving to Los Angeles, Kate has appeared as a violinist with the LA-based modern music collective Wild Up, most memorably in the 12 hour performance art piece 'Bliss,' by Ragnar Kjartansson, as well as in a sold out performance at The Soraya with the esteemed Martha Graham Dance Company. Other highlights include performances at the Orpheum Theater with acclaimed indie-rock band The National, on TBS's ‘Conan O'Brien Presents,’ and with MacArthur Fellowship-winning performance artist Taylor Mac in the widely acclaimed 'A 24-Decade History of Popular Music.’

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Kate has performed and premiered the works of countless living composers across the country, most recently premiering a new work by Anthony Cheung, thanks to funding through the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy’s #GLFCAMGigThruCOVID. She has performed in venues across the country including Walt Disney Concert Hall, National Sawdust, REDCAT, and has appeared in Festivals including SILENCE at Descanso, Bang on A Can Summer Festival Marathon, (R)evolution: Resonant Bodies, and Detroit’s Strange Beautiful Music. As an active recording artist, recent recording highlights include Miranda July’s new film ‘Kajillionaire,’ trailer music for “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” and Vagabon’s widely acclaimed self-titled debut album.

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Kate is a founding member of "The Furies," a feminist duo that promotes the sharing of stories and experiences of those traditionally excluded from the classical music canon. Together they address issues surrounding female empowerment through immersive live performances and transformative educational programming. The Furies performances include playing along side friends and mentors Eighth Blackbird at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, at Scholes Street Studio in New York City, and on Equal Sound Concert Series at Art Share LA. They have premiered works by Nina Shekhar, Elizabeth A. Baker, and Gemma Peacocke. Together they have created two shows, "A Cure for Hysteria,"  which deals with the gendered word 'hysteria' and its social connotations and consequences, and "P.M.S, the People Menstruate Show," which investigates the stigmas surrounding menstruation. 

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​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.

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A dedicated and experienced teacher, Kate currently works as the String Faculty for Global Arts Los Angeles. Kate uses a blend of Suzuki pedagogy, Creative Ability Development, and mindfulness exercises when teaching children in group and individual settings. Past teaching projects include virtual summer programming with Project 440, traveling to Seoul in conjunction with the LA Philharmonic tour, to work with Korean El Sistema students, and visiting Osceola County high schools with The Road to College to talk about college pathways, and serving as Strings Coordinator at YOSAL. Raised as a Suzuki student herself and having received her Suzuki Book 1 certification from former teacher Ronda Cole, Kate strives to breathe new life into traditional string pedagogy through her experiences within different communities, discover and dismantle White supremacist culture within teaching practices, and create meaningful lasting connections with students

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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. She has participated in residencies at Avaloch Farm Music Institute, Bang on a Can Summer Festival, and as well as Aspen Music Festival and the National Orchestra Institute.

 

While not playing her violin, Kate enjoys traveling to new places, eating dessert first, and finding the funny in everything. 

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