Kathy Judd has led a multi-faceted musical life as a violinist, violin teacher, chamber music performer, orchestral and commercial musician, and arts administrator.
Following graduate studies, she was a violinist in the St. Paul (MN) Chamber Orchestra with whom she performed in the US, Western and Eastern Europe, and former Soviet Union and was also a soloist. She was Concertmaster and soloist of orchestras including the The Las Vegas Symphony, Boulder (CO) Bach Festival, and the Nevada Chamber Orchestra. Judd was a string contractor, lead player and member of Las Vegas showroom orchestras for top headliners. She has performed in orchestras, summer music festivals in the US and Europe, and as a member of multiple chamber music ensembles.
As a teacher, she was a faculty member at the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts, an international residential high school in California, where she performed as a member of the ensemble-in-residence, including a tour in Taiwan. Her students won regional and national competitions. She was Assistant Professor of violin and member of the trio-in-residence at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and taught as adjunct violin faculty at Elizabethtown College (PA) and chamber music at Temple University Music Prep. She has taught at music camps in Nevada, Vermont, California, and Maryland. She was recently appointed Adjunct Associate Professor at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, VA.
As an arts administrator, for 25+ years Judd was Executive and Artistic Director of the Washington Conservatory of Music, a nationally accredited community music school (near DC), ending her tenure June 1, 2024. She was formerly Chair of the music department at Idyllwild Arts Academy (CA), and Artistic and Executive Director of Music at Gretna, (PA) a year-round chamber music and jazz concert series presenting artists such as the Count Basie Orchestra, Nancy Wilson, the Shanghai, Borromeo, and Audubon string quartets, among many others, and commissioning music and conceiving of performances by various combinations of musicians. As a grant writer, Judd has successfully written and received multiple grants and has also served as a grants panelist for a private foundation, as well as a state and national arts granting panelist (and chair) and a visiting evaluator for a national arts accreditation organization. ​
She earned an undergraduate degree in violin performance from New England Conservatory and 3-year Master of Musical Arts performance degree from Yale University with studies at Wichita State University and summers at Aspen Music Festival, Dartmouth College Festival, among others.
And, Judd once sold six one-liners to comedienne Joan Rivers, (for a whopping $60) and before the snow melted, trekked to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro. She has camped in the Amazon Rainforest, walked 100 miles in the Cotswolds, kayaked in Viet Nam, hoed potatoes in Northern Scotland, hiked in the Himalayas, ridden camels in the Sahara Desert, zip-lined in Costa Rica, and is recharged by new adventures and people she is lucky to meet along the way.
