Violinist Katherine Liccardo, a native New Yorker, began her violin and piano studies at age 3. Katherine’s passion for music started at home, growing up in a household of music teachers and performers. At the age of 18, she made her Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium solo debut as the winner of the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition. Katherine received her Bachelor of Music Degree from Mannes College The New School for Music and her Master of Music Degree from the Manhattan School of Music.
An active pedagogue and trained Suzuki teacher, Katherine has served on the faculty of the Center for Preparatory Studies in Music at Queens College for thirteen years. She runs an in-person and online teaching studio with students in New York, Maine, California, Texas, and Australia. During the summers, Katherine has served on the faculty of Kneisel Hall’s Program for Maine Students and Berkshire Summer Music in Massachusetts. As an adjudicator, she has been on the jury for Queens College undergraduate auditions and the Young Stars of Maine Competition. She is currently a member of the board of the Maine Suzuki Association, whose goal is to build community and create educational and performance opportunities for students across Maine. Combining her passion for performing and teaching, Katherine and her husband started an interactive concert series for kids in Washington Heights, NY: For the Love of Music. The mission of this program is to give children the opportunity to listen deeply to classical music in a hands-on and engaging setting. Katherine has led many similar interactive music workshops through Kneisel Hall and the Treetops Chamber Music series in Connecticut.
Katherine is currently the associate director of Vigorous Tenderness, an immersive outdoor concert series that amplifies marginalized voices in classical music and democratizes new/experimental music. VT concerts happen on each equinox and solstice throughout the year and serve as a way to mark the passage of time for the community. Each concert resembles an art museum experience, with chamber music in harmony with the landscape. Katherine also works with Shelter Music Maine, a fledgling organization that brings music to unsheltered communities across the state of Maine. SMM believes that all people deserve access to the therapeutic and healing powers of music.
From 2016-2019 Katherine was a member of Shattered Glass Ensemble, a self-governed conductorless string orchestra based in New York City. The ensemble released an album in 2017 featuring pieces by living composers Caroline Shaw, Tarik O’Regan, and a commission by Pascal Le Boeuf. In her four seasons in SG, Katherine was a featured soloist in Vivaldi concerti, Stravinsky’s Apollon Musegète, Delights and Dances by Michael Abels, and Chaabi by Tarik O’Regan.
As second violinist and founding member of the former Blue Hill String Quartet, Katherine has made appearances at Alice Tully Hall in the Wednesdays at One concert series, community spaces in Brooklyn through Groupmuse, and recitals throughout the New York region. In April 2015, the BHSQ was awarded first prize in the J.C. Arriaga Chamber Music Competition, competing against ensembles from all over the country. In the summer of 2015, the BHSQ held a fellowship at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, working closely with members of the Emerson, Brentano, Artis and Alexander string quartets.
In addition to classical music, Katherine has recently discovered her deep love of Celtic music. She has been studying fiddle with Jeremy Kittel for the past 2 and a half years and has big plans to continue to infuse fiddling into her musical career.
Katherine currently lives in North Yarmouth, Maine with her husband/violist and multi-instrumentalist, Matt Consul and their cat, Mr. Jack.