2020 Conference Featured Artist

CATHERINE KAUTSKY, piano

Intermediate Master Class and Lecture Presentation Artist

“Intersections: How Place and Music Come Together”

Catherine Kautsky, the George and Marjorie Olsen Chandler Professor of Music and Chair of Keyboard Studies at Lawrence University, has been lauded by the New York Times as a pianist whose “music spoke directly to the listener, with neither obfuscation nor pretense.”  Her recent recording of the complete Debussy Preludes was said to “bring out all the power, majesty, and mystery of Debussy’s conception,“ and she has recently issued a recording of the Brahms Sonatas for Violin and Piano. Ms. Kautsky, whose teachers have included Rosina Lhevinne, Gyorgy Sebok, Martin Canin, and Gilbert Kalish, has concertized widely, performing in Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Recital Hall, and the Phillips Collection in the United States and appearing abroad on six continents.  She teaches and performs at the Interharmony International Music Festival in Italy and the Saarburg International Music Festival in Germany during the summers. 

Prof. Kautsky has taught at Lawrence University since 1987, with a 6 -year hiatus as both a faculty member and chair of the Keyboard Dept. at University of Wisconsin-Madison.  A devoted teacher, she is the winner of the 2016 Lawrence University Excellence in Teaching Award and the 2013 Faculty Convocation Award. Ms. Kautsky is also known for her cross-disciplinary interests and was awarded the distinguished Arts Institute Creative Arts Award while at UW-Madison for her work on the intersections of literature, music, and social history.  She is a frequent presenter at national conferences, and her articles have appeared in Clavier Companion, American Music Teacher, and International Piano. Her book, Debussy’s Paris: Piano Portraits of the Belle Époque, appeared to excellent reviews in September, 2017. 

An eager advocate for building new audiences for classical music, Prof. Kautsky has a long history of performances at prisons as well as other outlets for communities in need.  She is now undertaking a series of 24 videos on piano literature for Great Courses.