Twenty-one years of playing cello have given musician KATHRYN BATES both passion and commitment to her art form. Hailed by the New York Times as "a cellist with a beautifully rounded sound," her talent encompasses all genres of performance. Her love of chamber music has lead to numerous concerts in Houston and Mexico with her piano trio Trio Nova Mundi (http://trionovamunid.googlepages.com), an appearance with the group as international artists at the Mes Franz Liszt in Quito, Ecuador,a performance of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in Atlanta, Georgia, and winning the Pittsburgh Concert Society's Major Audition. Additionally, her passion for new music and chamber music has collided with a performance at the Kennedy Center for the Arts of Pierre Jalbert’s Dual Velocity, with pianist Teresa Yu (together, they form the Amabile Duo), her involvement as the cellist of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble for its 2007 season and as a New Fromm player at the Tanglewood Music Center. The New York Times remarked that the New Fromm performance of Elliott Carter's Second Quartet "was given a reading so fluid you would hardly have guessed that it was once considered brutally difficult."

A native of historic Concord, Massachusetts, Miss Bates was actively involved in music programs, orchestras, and competitions in the local music scene until she moved to Houston. Her quality leadership, teaching, and musical skills were demonstrated when she was asked to lead her school orchestra for a time when they lacked a conductor. A member of Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras for eight years, she traveled with the orchestra to Minnesota, Chicago, the British, Isles, and France, and also participated in many festival orchestras including the Massachusetts All-State Orchestras, American String Teacher Association's National High School Honors Orchestra, of which she was assistant principal, and the All-Eastern Orchestra.In Boston, Miss Bates distinguished herself in local competitions, including first prize in her division in the American String Teachers Association Solo Competition in Massachusetts, honorable mention in the Boston Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, second prize in the New England String Ensemble Concerto Competition, and first prize in the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras Senior Concerto Competition, resulting in a performance with the orchestra at Harvard University's Sanders Theatre. She has played for many masterclasses given by renowned cellists including Yo-Yo Ma, Lynn Harrell, Pieter Wispelwey, Bonnie Hampton, David Ying, David Finckel, in addition to chamber music masterclasses with Guarnari String Quartet, the Leipzig String Quartet, the Peabody Trio, Menahem Pressler, Martha Katz, and many others. Additionally, she has coached chamber music with members of the Concord, Cleveland, Guarnari, and Juilliard Quartets. Her collaborations in chamber music have been with celebrated artists Menahem Pressler, Jospeh Swensen, Jodi Levitz, Jean-Michel Fonteneau, and Axel Strauss. She has attended a unique variety of festivals, such as the Tanglewood Music Center, where she received the Karl Zeise Memorial Cello Award, New York String Orchestra Seminar, the Summer Music Academy in Leipzig, Germany, the Masterworks Festival, the Festival da Musique da Camara in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and the Musicorda Summer String Program. In her orchestral experience, she has had the opportunity to work under talented conductors such as Kurt Masur, James Levine, Bernard Haitink, Herbert Blomstedt, Hans Graf, Seiji Ozawa, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Joseph Silverstein, and Larry Rachleff.

An active recitalist, with performances in Massachusetts, Texas, California, and Mexico, Miss Bates tries to engage and challenge audiences with less known or modern repertoire, such as Osvaldo Golijov's Omaramor, and provoking program notes and concert talks. Miss Bates is committed to exploring and understanding the importance and relevance of music, in particular in the context of culture, in addition to music's connection to other fields. Her long-time study of and interest in dance resulted in a collaboration with Dance Prism, a local ballet company in Massachusetts, in a performance of a choreographed version of the third suite for cello by J.S. Bach, and a recent collaboration with new music and San Francisco dancers.

Similarly, Miss Bates' enthusiasm for social issues and her desire to use her cello as her voice have inspired performances for the homeless, and recently, two benefit concerts: a recital for Hope for the Children of Haiti, a Haitian orphanage, and collaboration with San Francisco’s Music for Life to support Invisible Children, working with children in Uganda and Sudan. She has also recorded a CD with La Viña, a Latino church in Houston, Texas.

Miss Bates completed a Bachelor of Music in performance, under the direction of cellist Norman Fischer, at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music in May 2005. In May 2007, she received her Masters of Music in chamber music at San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she has been active in both chamber music and new music, recently working with Ensemble Parallèle in the premiere of Lou Harrison’s opera Young Caesar. At the conservatory, she studied with Jean-Michel Fonteneau, and was first a teaching assistant to cellist Mark Kosower and then chamber music assistant to Mark Sokol..