The artistry of Kathleen Winkler has earned her the plaudits of critics and audiences alike worldwide since her solo debut at the age of seventeen with the Philadelphia Orchestra. She has been heard with such orchestras as the Detroit Symphony (with which she has toured on many occasions), the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Danish Radio Orchestra, the Odense Byorkester, the Polish Slaska Philharmonic, the Grand Rapids Symphony, the Savannah Symphony, and the Phoenix Symphony, to name a few. She has toured throughout the U.S. and Canada as well as having performed in Sweden, Poland, Germany, Spain, and the Canary Islands.
The recipient of numerous awards, Ms. Winkler took first prize in the First International Carl Nielsen Violin Competition which led to her sponsored debuts in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, London's Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room, the Kennedy Center and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., as well as numerous radio broadcast performances on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the International Voice of America.
Through a national search, Kathleen Winkler was selected by the United States Information Agency to represent the U.S. as an Artistic Ambassador on concert tours throughout the world. Her initial tour took her to Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea, and New Zealand. Another extended tour saw Ms. Winkler's performances representing our country in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Algeria, Tunisia, Nigeria, and Kenya. A third tour took Ms. Winkler throughout Australia and South America.
An active chamber musician, Ms. Winkler has appeared at major music festivals throughout the country such as The Kent-Blossom Music Festival with Leonard Slatkin conducting, The Skaneateles Festival with David Zinman conducting, and The Bear Valley Festival with Carter Nice conducting. Other festival appearances have included the Music in the Mountains Festival at Steamboat Springs, The Hamden-Sydney Chamber Music Festival, The Bay Chamber Concerts, The Festival de Musique de Chambre du Montréal, and Da Camera in Houston. In addition, for six years, Ms. Winkler was a member of the Amabile Piano Quartet which regularly toured the country under such auspices as the Southern Arts Touring Federation, The Mid-America Arts Alliance, Arts Midwest, and various other state arts agencies. Concert appearances included the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., The Columbus Chamber Music Society, The Chamber Music Society of Chicago, and The Friends of Music in Houston.
A devoted mentor to young musicians, Ms. Winkler is the recipient of Rice University's prestigious Julia Mile Chance Award for excellence in teaching. Her students can be found among the ranks of national and international competition winners as well as in the world’s leading orchestras and chamber ensembles. Additionally, Ms. Winkler’s students have been the recipients of such prestigious awards as the Watson Fellowship, the Fulbright Award, and the Pulitzer Prize in Music. As an adjudicator, Ms. Winkler has served on the panel of organizations such as The Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition, The American String Teachers Association's National Competition (ASTA), The Concert Artist Guild of New York, The Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition, The Midland-Odessa National Young Artists Competition, The Lennox-Richardson National Young Artist Competition, The Corpus Christi International Young Artist Competition, and the General Motors Seventeen National Competition.
The Philadelphia-born artist attended Indiana University where she received her Bachelor of Music degree, magna cum laude, as well as the coveted Performer's Certificate. She also attended the University of Michigan where she received her Master of Music degree, summa cum laude. Formerly on the faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory and The Cleveland Institute of Music, as well as serving as a visiting professor at Indiana’s Jacobs School of Music and the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, Ms. Winkler has been a Professor of Violin at the Shepherd School of Music for the past 21 years, holding the Dorothy Richard Starling Chair in Classical Violin since 2011. During the summer she is on the artist faculty of the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, where she also holds the Dorothy Richard Starling Chair in Violin.