Musician Biographies

Catherine Carson (Cate) is from Northfield, MN, and is a violin student of Renée Jolles. She’s a senior at the Eastman School of Music, where she is majoring in Violin Performance. At Eastman, Cate has served as Concertmaster a number of times, including in a recent performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. Cate has won prizes in many competitions, including the Young Arts, Schubert Club Scholarship, Thursday Musical, Young People’s Symphony Concert Association (YPSCA), Rochester Music Guild and Mary West Solo Competitions. As a result of the YPSCA competition, at which Cate won the grand prize, she was able to perform the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Minnesota Orchestra last year. 

Cate has attended numerous summer festivals, including the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music School and Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Colorado College Summer Music Festival, California Summer Music, Bravo! Summer Music Academy, and the Pienza Music Festival in Pienza, Italy. She has worked with Sally O’Reilly, Robin Scott, Almita Vamos, and Ayano Ninomiya, and has performed in masterclasses with Jennifer Koh, Gwen Thompson, Gil Shaham, Nicola Benedetti, and Donald Weilerstein. Outside of music, Cate enjoys reading and spending time with friends, family and her cats.

Raised in New York and based in Rochester, Allison Keller (Ally) is an accomplished violist currently finishing up her Bachelor’s in Viola Performance. Ally started playing the viola at age 14 and has since performed as a soloist with orchestras in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Germany. She attended Manhattan School of Music’s precollege division and has held principal and assistant principal viola positions in various orchestras including Eastman’s Philharmonic Orchestra, Opera Orchestra the Manhattan School of Music Precollege Philharmonia and the New York Youth Symphony. Ally is currently the Teaching Assistant to George Taylor at the Eastman School of Music, and has received masterclasses from renowned artists such as Sheila Brown, Lawrence Dutton, Karen Ritscher, and Jodi Levitz. She has also been awarded full scholarships to participate in festivals including Aspen, Sewanee, the Berlin Opera Academy, Borromeo, and Interlochen. Ally has a passion for chamber music, having recently performed in Rochester’s annual Prism Concert Series with The Juniper Quartet. She also participates in the Musica NOVA New Music Ensemble, a group dedicated to showcasing the works of 20th and 21st century composers such as Reich, Ligeti, Lachenmann, and Haas. Alongside her private students, Ally has also worked as an upper-strings teaching assistant at Interlochen Arts Camp and French Woods Arts Camp during the summer. She loves her ginger tabby, Yhorm.