Amy Catron

Amy Catron – www.amycatron.com

Acclaimed for her “admirable virtuoso skills,” Amy Catron frequently appears as a soloist, chamber musician, adjudicator, and clinician. She has toured and recorded extensively as a soloist and in chamber and orchestral settings throughout the United States, Europe, and China. She has appeared as a soloist with Sinfonia da Camera, Baroque Artists of Champaign-Urbana (BACH), Charlotte Symphony in Florida, Illinois Symphony Chamber Orchestra, Millikin Wind Ensemble, and Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra.

As a solo and chamber musician, she tackles repertoire spreading from the Renaissance Era to contemporaneity. Her interest in early music led to highly praised appearances as a viola da gamba player and a fruitful collaboration with Illinois’s BACH Orchestra for many years. Ms. Catron is also an avid promoter of new music, having performed and premièred many works by living composers, including Robert Chumbley, Michael Schelle, Peter Michalove, and Carlos Carillo. She also appears internationally as a chamber musician. Her CD, Particles and Prayer, won a Global Music Award silver medal in March 2019.

An active orchestra musician, Ms. Catron is currently principal cellist with Sinfonia da Camera and Millikin-Decatur Symphony and associate principal with Illinois Symphony and Illinois Chamber Orchestras. Before moving to the Midwest, she has been a member of the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra in Florida. She has collaborated with the Akron and Canton Symphonies in Ohio and the Richmond Symphony Orchestra in Virginia.

In addition to her performing career, Ms. Catron is a sought-after pedagogue, adjudicator, and clinician. She currently resides in Decatur, IL, where she teaches cello, music theory, ear training, pedagogy, lower string methods, and an intergenerational community cello choir at the Millikin University School of Music. She has taught and performed widely at music festivals, including InterHarmony International Music Festival (Italy), Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, Illinois Wesleyan Chamber and Cello Camps, Bands of America, Illinois Summer Youth Music Programs, and the International Chamber Music Festival in Bulgaria, where she was named Artistic Director for 2015. She has also been a collaborative faculty member at Illinois Wesleyan and Illinois State Universities. She frequently publishes reviews of new music in the National American String Teachers Association Magazine.

Ms. Catron studied at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester (New York) and the University of Akron (Ohio) and is currently a DMA Candidate in Music Education from Boston University (Massachusetts). Her principal teachers were Michael Haber and Pamela Frame. She has also advanced her studies at music festivals and in masterclass sessions with Paul Katz, Yehuda Hanani, Carter Brey, and Cleveland and Kronos Quartets. Recently, Ms. Catron completed K-12 teacher certification, and she is actively pursuing further education and training through the Suzuki Association of America.

Recently, Amy Catron has appeared as a soloist with the Decatur Youth Symphony, Olivet Nazarene Symphony, and the Sangamon Civic Orchestra and has been broadcast live on WILL FM. Highlights of Ms. Catron’s 2014-2015 season included a Midwest tour in duo with pianist Silvan Negruțiu. She gave the world première performance of Carlos Carillo’s O Casi el Alma for Cello and Orchestra, dedicated to her and commissioned in collaboration with Sinfonia da Camera on February 13, 2015, at the Krannert Center in Urbana, IL. She also performed world premieres and has recorded Robert Chumbley’s ParticIe I for solo Cello and Particle II for cello and wind Ensemble. In April 2019, she soloed with the Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra performing Osvaldo Golijov’s Azul. In November 2020, she performed Beethoven Sonatas #4 and #5 and premiered Songs of the Siren (dedicated to her) by Robert Chumbley with pianist Silvan Negruțiu live on YouTube.

Amy is equally passionate about teaching, researching, performing as a chamber musician, soloist, orchestral player, and sharing the love of music in any context where there is room for more cello. She is currently accepting students online and in the central Illinois area.