Bio
Award-winning American cellist Katie Tertell is a performer and artistic curator, innovating how classical music is digested in modern times. Katie is Artistic Director and Founder of the Appalachian Chamber Music Festival, headquartered in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, USA. A former member of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, she enjoys a rich and varied experience as a freelance artist in the UK, Europe and America.
Alongside work with internationally celebrated ensembles, Katie focuses her attention on projects that aim to connect people through meaningful experiences in music, working cross disciplinarily and in various sectors. Katie performs and records regularly with respected European symphony and chamber orchestras including in various leadership roles at major venues such as the BBC Proms. She can be heard regularly on BBC Radio 3, networks in the European Broadcast Commission and RTÈ Lyric FM in recorded and live performances of both chamber, orchestral and folk works. Katie teaches cello at Durham University (UK) and is a member of the critically-acclaimed chamber music collective Musici Ireland, as well as the Northumberland-based group Howay the Lasses.
Katie has the pleasure to perform at chamber music festivals and series in the UK, Europe and USA (Wye International, Torrey, Endellion, Kilkenny etc.), and enjoys working with composers on creative projects and commissions. Katie is a recipient of several awards and honours, including an “Exceptional Talent” visa awarded by Arts Council England, a Leverhume Bursary and several performance competitions and grants. Some of her current projects include “Howay the Lasses”, celebrating women of the North East in original song; "A Winter's Journey, reimagined" with composer Mark Boden; "Lost in Plain Sight" in collaboration with Dr. Rosi Song, Durham University and the Instituto Cervantes, and the educational Cello Power project which was presented as part of the Live_Performance Now conference in Dublin in March of 2022.
Katie grew up outside of Washington D.C. in McLean, Virginia. She holds degrees with honours in performance from Indiana University, Cleveland Institute of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music, as well as a Second Masters degree in Suzuki Pedagogy from the Sato Center at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Her teachers and mentors include among many Janos Starker, Emilio Colón, Joely Koos, Peter Dixon and Ralph Kirschbaum. Katie plays on an 1888 Colin-Mezin cello.