Dr. Kate Alexandra, DMA (she/her) is a performer and educator based in Chicagoland. In 2019, Kate earned her doctorate in double bass performance with a cognate in arts administration from the University of Cincinnati, College Conservatory of Music.
Throughout her career, Kate has been an advocate of arts education as a way to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion. She embodied this praxis with her doctoral project in which she commissioned a selection of works by nine women composers and highlighted the need for representation among composers and inclusion among bass performers. Her dedication to bringing new and different perspectives to double bass repertoire resulted in the recording of these works, as well as a world premiere at the American String Teachers Association in 2022.
As an educator, Kate has consistently sought ways to increase access and representation as an extension of her doctoral research. In 2021, Kate taught remote lessons to her students at Withrow University High School (Cincinnati, OH), where she had previously coached chamber music and instructed private and group lessons. Kate presented educational workshops for high school students on topics such as efficient and effective practice methods, bow distribution, and ear training. These workshops were sponsored and funded in part by concert:nova and the Benjamin Carlson-Berne Scholarship Fund, whose mission is to expose economically disadvantaged children and youth to classical music. From 2017 to 2019, Kate worked as the music theory instructor and teaching assistant at the Cincinnati Double Bass Institute. Kate has also delivered a presentation for music specialists on chamber music with double bass obbligato. In 2019, Kate premiered five new works with double bass for Cincinnati Soundbox at the 21c Museum Hotel. In 2021, Ball State University’s School of Music invited Kate as a guest artist to present three double bass intensives. During the 2022 Hybrid ASTA National Conference, Kate presented the session “Commissioning for Everybody: An Individual’s Guide to Fundraising, Recording, and Collaborating”.
Throughout her career, Kate has participated in summer festivals including the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival as a Professional Fellow studying with Mr. Jeff Bradetich and Dr. Gudrun Raschen (2017) and Sewanee Summer Music Festival studying with Sid King (2013).
She was honored with the Katherine Anne Suber Whiton Memorial Scholarship for Double Bass Excellence in 2012 and 2010 from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Her influential teachers include Rachel Calin, Albert Laszlo, Maurice Todd, Paul Erhard, Nick Recuber, Jenny West, Miriam Bijkerk, Jason Heath, and Jamie Chen. Kate performs on a contrabass labeled Josef Chramosta Nove Benatry from 1880 that was recently restored by the Cincinnati Bass Cellar.
Currently, she is an active member of the ASTA private studio committee, having served as a panelist on the 2021 and 2022 National Conference roundtables. Kate is life member of the International Society of Double Bassists.
Annie Scheumbauer
Jackie Stevens