Kathy Judd
Mar 25, 2023
Kathy Judd
Sep 29, 2025
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KATHY JUDD CONSULTING - VIOLIN, MUSIC & COMMON SENSE
a down-to-earth approach for stellar music-making
Welcome! Thank you for visiting my violin teaching and arts consulting website & blog; for my site for hypnotherapy for creatives: https://www.kathyjuddhypnotherapy.com/
Introduction
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. and a string contractor, lead player, and member of Las Vegas showroom orchestras for top headliners. She has performed in various orchestras, festivals, and chamber 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. 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. During the 2024-25 academic year she was Adjunct Associate Professor at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, VA.
As a supplement to her musical career, in December 2024, after 500 hours of training, she became a certified medical support hypnotherapist. Currently, she is studying the innovative Simpson Protocol, which facilitates a client-centered, private process where the client's own deeper mind determines the cause and solution to the issue.
As an arts administrator for over 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 series presenting artists such as the Count Basie Orchestra, Nancy Wilson, the Shanghai, Borromeo, and Audubon string quartets, among others, and commissioning and curating performances. Judd has successfully written multiple grants and served as a grants panelist for a private foundation, state and national granting panels, and a visiting evaluator for a national arts accreditation organization. ​
She earned an undergraduate degree in violin performance from New England Conservatory and a 3-year Master of Musical Arts performance degree from Yale University, with studies at Wichita State University and at various summer festivals.
For fun, Judd once sold six one-liners to comedienne Joan Rivers and 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 Scotland, hiked in the Himalayas, and ridden camels in the Sahara Desert.
Now accepting advanced middle and high school students and
beginner to advanced adult students for February 2026
703-401-0081 or kjudd@kathyjuddviolin.com
Teacher
Please peruse my 30-Second Thoughts blog above
and view this short video coaching session below
I once gave my college students pencils imprinted with "Judd Studio of Violin & Common Sense," as a fun way to summarize my teaching philosophy. This was referring to approaching the myriad of complex aspects of playing through what is familiar; for example, using your body in ways similar to normal daily usage, building musical phrases in ways similar to effective speakers, or implementing specific goal-oriented practice plans like athletes or puzzle solvers.
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Most importantly, there must be joy in the process. I encourage embracing the fun, fascinating path of mining the depths of music and cultivating your own authentic voice. Continually refining your sound and your technique allows you to have a voice prepared to bring the profound experience of music off the page. ​
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Everyone is unique and deserves a personalized approach to learning. The ultimate goal and deepest satisfaction is finding your personal, most expansive and expressive pipeline for communicating the transformative power of music. ​​
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Sample Live Performance: Vivaldi Winter, Movement I​ - soloist, K. Judd
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Consultant for arts organizations
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Having worked for decades as an arts administrator in the performing arts and educational sectors, served on private, state, and national arts granting panels and served as a visiting evaluator of community arts schools, here is what I have learned: there isn't an arts organization that doesn't have warts. Some are hardly noticeable, some have been there so long that no one notices, and some are holding them back from their potential to change lives.
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I've served as an arts administrator for over three decades as a music school administrator and concert producer and presenter by:
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Leading: a music department, a year-round concert series, and a nationally accredited community school
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Creating: producing and presenting concerts, projects, camps and classes for adults and students
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Serving: on judging panels and knowing the conversations when grant application funding is being considered.
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Evaluating - the community music education potential for the music department of a major state university, the education program of a major orchestra, and being a visiting evaluator for accredited community arts schools.
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Researching and writing applications for over $2,000,000 in granted funds
I know the probable outcomes of well-meaning people taking uninformed actions. t I'm happy to talk to see if my perspective can help you achieve your goals.
Hint #1: Your mission is a daily touchstone
Hint #2: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, whether or not mandated, are imperative action words.
I believe that with a few exceptions, every frog in the arts world has prince potential, though every transformative process is unique and only in fairy tales does it happen instantly with a kiss.
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When I retired from my position as a high school chemistry teacher, I wanted to get back to violin playing. So once I had time, Kathy Judd agreed to take me on as a student. She has been a very inspiring and effective teacher. She never tells me just what to do, but also why I should try to make a change; why a new hand position on my bow might help get a better tone or why a different left hand position might help get a smoother vibrato. I am short and have small hands, so Kathy has always taken that into consideration when making adjustments. At my age, changes such as these can be difficult and it's easy to relapse into old habits. Kathy has shown infinite patience, always correcting as if it is something new and always with a slightly different explanation. But just the physical part of violin playing has never been enough. Kathy has always dwelt on musicianship, phrasing, color and other aspects of interpretation. We have spent a lot of time on how to use the bow to get different tone qualities and effects. We have talked about how different notes add to a phrase or are bridges to something that needs better emphasis.... Lessons with Kathy have always been musically rewarding and stimulating. She is a first rate teacher.
Adult Student
Ms. Judd has many exceptional qualities. She is an artist violinist, a talented and sought after chamber musician, a dynamic and proven leader (Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts, Gretna Music Festival and Washington Conservatory), inspirational teacher, and an exceptional fund raiser. She increased the visibility of the Washington Conservatory exponentially by driving up enrollment, presenting well-attended and acclaimed concerts and masterclasses, increasing the artistic level of the faculty, and attracting large and generous gifts to her operation. Kathy Judd knows the value of collaboration--with individual artists, arts organizations and community entities. Because of her creativity and imagination--she enriches lives through skillful leveraging of talent and then a flair for evocative communication. She has positioned herself and her institution in the upper echelon of educational and artistic circles in Washington, DC and beyond. Kathy Judd has my respect, admiration and full endorsement.
University Dean
I cannot recommend more highly this extraordinary woman of many talents, for any leadership post relating to the arts and/or arts management. She is a true visionary and a gift to all who know her.
Professional Musician/Teacher
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