Dr. Katherine Shields
Leading the Chamber Music Workshop


A native of Chicago, Katherine Shield’s interest in chamber music dates back to the 6th grade when she began a weekly chamber music lesson program that involved periodic weekend workshops with the Fine Arts Quartet, Quartet-in-Residence at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She went on to study chamber music at Indiana University, Northwestern University, The Aspen Music School, New College Music Festival, Brevard Music Center and Arizona State University.

Katherine is the violist of Quartet Sabaku, a Phoenix-based string quartet on the Teaching Artists Roster of the Arizona Commission on the Arts since 1998. She is on the faculty of “Chamber Music Camp with Quartet Sabaku” (Goodyear, AZ) and “Silverton Fall Colors Chamber Music Weekend” (Silverton, CO), which debuts in September 2011. Katherine is a member of the Arizona Opera Orchestra and is a studio teacher of violin and viola. Her humorous essays about a musical life are online at Scribd.com and have been “featured” five times.

Katherine holds a B.M. in Viola from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) and an M.M. and D.M.A. in Solo Performance from Arizona State University, Tempe, where she was inducted into Pi Kappa Lambda.Her principal teachers include William Magers, Lee Lane, William Schoen, Robert Swan, George Janzer, and Karen Tuttle. Katherine is a former member of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, The Phoenix Symphony and the Florida Symphony Orchestra.