Kate Tamarkin

Described by Leonard Bernstein as “extremely musical, a vivid personality, and a strong performer,” Kate Tamarkin has had a distinguished career of 35 years as an orchestral conductor.  Kate joined the faculty of the University of Virginia in the fall of 2006 bringing a background of over twenty years as a professional conductor and educator. She is currently the Music Director Laureate of the Charlottesville Symphony, having retired from the Orchestra and the University of Virginia in May of 2017.  She has been Music Director of the Monterey Symphony (CA), Vermont Symphony, East Texas Symphony, and the Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra (WI). She was also the Associate Conductor of the Dallas Symphony under Eduardo Mata.

Her guest conducting credits include the Shanghai Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, National Symphony of Moldova, and the following US orchestras:  Chicago, Houston, St. Louis, Phoenix, Nashville, New Mexico, Oklahoma City, Tucson, Pacific (CA), Eastern Music Festival (NC), and Chicago’s Grant Park Festival.  She has also conducted several opera productions, including “Rigoletto”, “Suor Angelica”, and the Washington D.C. premiere of Mark Adamo’s “Little Women” for the Summer Opera Theatre Company of Washington, D.C.  She conducted “The Marriage of Figaro” as a guest of the Peabody Conservatory, and “Amahl and the Night Visitors” for the Charlottesville Opera.  She also served on the music faculty of The Catholic University of America, where she conducted the regional premiere of Marc Blitzstein’s opera “Regina”.

Ms. Tamarkin is a Certified Music Practitioner on the Celtic harp and is a Musician in Residence at the UVa Medical Center as well as the Program Coordinator for “Music by the Bedside” for the Hospice of the Piedmont.  

Ms. Tamarkin holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the Peabody Conservatory of Music, a Masters Degree in Orchestral Conducting from Northwestern University, and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Chapman University in California.