Backstage: Classical Career Conversations

Katrina Stroud has been playing violin since the age of three and currently attends the University of Michigan studying with Fabiola Kim, and graduated from the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings with her Bachelor’s degree in Violin Performance with electives in Business. As a sophomore in college in 2023 she won second prize in the St. Paul String Quartet Competition and was a quarter-finalist in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.
Katrina has performed in the Fabian Concert Series of Mercer University alongside violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti, cellist Sihao He and pianist Jeewon Park. She has also performed on the concert series Andy and Friends, UCSB Chamber Music, and New Canaan Chamber Music. She performed in the Emmy award-winning “A Night of Georgia Music” which was broadcast on national television with violinist Robert McDuffie; Mike Mills, lead guitarist of REM; and pianist Chuck Leavell of The Rolling Stones. Katrina has worked with world-renowned pedagogues and performers such as Paul Kantor, Miriam Fried, Robert Lipsett, Vadim Gluzman, James Ehnes, Donald Weilerstein, Peter Oundjian, Nancy Zhou, Itamar Zorman, and Tessa Lark among others.
Katrina was a member of the Macon-Mercer Symphony Orchestra where she was concertmaster and principal second violinist. She has performed with and is a current member of the New World Symphony substitute musician list. She has performed under the baton of Leonard Slatkin, Peter Oundjian, Robert Spano, Roderick Cox, Peter Bay, and Jane Glover to name a few. Katrina has also been to the Aspen Music Festival where she studied in the studio of Robert Lipsett for two summers. As an avid chamber musician Katrina has worked with members of the Emerson, Cavani, Tokyo, Cleveland, Calidore, Attacca, and Ariel String Quartets among others. She has participated in a student-led program, the New Music Initiative for Black Voices, which collaborates with young black composers and gives them a voice in the classical music industry. Katrina has spent her summers at the Rome Chamber Music Festival, Center Stage Strings, Encore Chamber Music String and Chamber Music Intensive, Sounding Point Academy, Madeline Island Chamber Music Festival, Texas Strings Festival, and was a fellow at the Blackburn Music Academy at Festival Napa Valley.