Teaching Experience
As an educator, Dr. Kate Alexandra, DMA has taught at both university and secondary levels at several institutions, including Black Hills State University, Ball State University, the Cincinnati Double Bass Institute, and the Cincinnati Public School system. Kate is devoted to increasing diversity, equity, inclusion, representation, and accessibility in music education and the double bass solo repertoire as it is critical to the development and growth of musicians and artists.
Teaching Philosophy
Kate currently maintains a private studio in the Chicagoland area, where she cultivates an environment that promotes students to be self-sufficient, motivated, and develop a life-long investment in learning and the arts. Beyond focusing on fundamentals and techniques, she emphasizes sight-singing, ear training, improvisation, and composition to build upon musicianship.
Wide Ranging Expertise
Kate provides private and group lessons in double bass, music theory, and aural skills for students to all ages all over the world. She coaches chamber music and string sectionals, and presents double bass workshops, masterclasses and lectures. Topics include: bass and bow fundamentals, warm-ups and technical exercises and much, much more!
Always looking for way to improve her teaching and practice, Kate completed the two-part 2024 online course by Dr. Molly Gebrian “Learn Faster, Perform Better: Musicians Guide to the Neuroscience of Practicing.”
Research Interests
Kate advocates for diversifying the classical music world through her commission and performance of new double bass compositions. At the 2023 International Society of Bassists (ISB), she and Dr. Christina Lalog Seal presented “Putting the ‘Us’ in Music: A World Premiere Recital of Six New Works by Women Composers.”
The recital included:
- Serin Oh Waterfalls
- Brittany J. Green i get out.
- Ellen Ruth Harrison Solitude IV
- Laura Harrison In Darkness, Calming
- Jessica Mays And when I sit still, there’s a heart and a brain
- Nailah Nombeko Anima
Conference Experience
That same year, she organized and moderated the panel “From the Ground Up: Building and Sustaining your Private Studio” for the 2023 ASTA Virtual String Teachers Summit.
The 45-minute panel discussion identified fundamental elements of studio-building work and synthesized a set of best practices teachers can implement to build a private studio.
At the 2022 Hybrid ASTA National Conference, Kate also presented the session “Commissioning for Everybody: An Individual’s Guide to Fundraising, Recording, and Collaborating.”
At the 2022 Hybrid ASTA National Conference, Kate presented the session “Commissioning for Everybody: An Individual’s Guide to Fundraising, Recording, and Collaborating.”
Leadership & Community
Kate served as a studio teacher liaison on the Illinois ASTA board from 2022-2024, where she presented 41 online events for studio teachers. During her two-year term, she developed a strong professional community of studio teachers in Illinois and across the United States.
Book Club Fun!
Kate hosted the IL ASTA Studio Chat and the Studio Teacher Book Club, which concentrated on pedagogy and andragogy, with a focus in social justice and inclusion in music education.
Books included: How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk (2012); Equity by Design: Delivering on the Power and Promise of UDL (2020); Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom (1994); Light From Uncommon Stars (2021); The Violin Conspiracy (2022); Symphony of Secrets (2023); Learn Faster, Perform Better: A Musician’s Guide to the Neuroscience of Practicing (2024), and much more!
Over a decade of teaching experience with students from…