BIOGRAPHY

Katherine Wiley is a versatile performer as both a classical violinist and fiddler.  She has performed at venues from festivals to concert halls, and has won many Scottish fiddling awards and competitions.  Katherine grew up in the Boston area, and discovered Celtic music after studying classical music in college. She learned from master fiddlers in the Irish, Scottish, and Cape Breton traditions, but her fiddling style draws on a broad musical background that includes studies in baroque violin, medieval and renaissance instruments, and improvisation.

As a member of the early music/celtic ensemble The Boar’s Head Consort, she won first place in the Baltimore Chamber Music Awards Competition and performed throughout the Baltimore and Washington D.C. area.  She also played fiddle with the Baltimore Irish band Keltia, and the Cambridge, Massachusetts Revels production. After moving to Winston-Salem, Katherine studied Irish step dancing at the Rince na H’Eireann School of Irish Dance, and danced at community events in the triad area.  She also worked and performed as a duo with guitarist Joseph Pecoraro for 25 years.

Katherine is a violinist with the Winston-Salem Symphony, and formerly played with the Washington Chamber Orchestra, Carolina Chamber Symphony, Wintergreen Festival Orchestra, and the Symphonies of Harrisburg, Annapolis, Roanoke, and Charlotte. 

 As an orchestral and freelance musician, she has shared the stage with many notable pop and folk performers including Eric Clapton, The Indigo Girls, Bruce Hornsby, Yanni, The Manhattan Transfer, Eileen Ivers, Boys2Men, Chris Thiele, Ben Folds, Bela Fleck, Billy Ocean, Branford Marsalis and Ricky Scaggs, among others.

Katherine is passionate about teaching, and in addition to her own private violin studio she is an adjunct professor of music at UNC School of the Arts and Wake Forest University, and  Director of Blue Ridge Suzuki Camp in Orkney Springs, Virginia.