Kathryn Dey

Originally from Madison, Wisconsin, violist Kathryn Dey is active as a soloist and chamber musician and has performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe.  Recent performances include the Summermusic Series in upstate New York,  the Charleston Music Fest in Charleston, SC and a series of recitals in northern Germany.  She has also been a featured performer at chamber music festivals in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Florida.  In 2006 Ms. Dey was awarded a grant from the Surdna Foundation to study and perform works for unaccompanied viola by American composer Lillian Fuchs.   She appears regularly with organist Ryan Hebert as The Lila Duo and together they have given numerous performances in the states and abroad.  

Ms. Dey is currently principal violist of the Greenville Symphony Orchestra.  She is also on the faculty of the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities, the Eastman School of Music Summer Viola Workshop and the Swannanoa Chamber Music Festival.  Students from her teaching studio have received prizes in state and national competitions and have been featured performers on SC-ETV and National Public Radio.  Ms. Dey was named 2008 Orchestra Director of the Year by the South Carolina chapter of the American String Teacher Association.  Her teaching ideas have been recognized by the South Carolina Alliance for Arts Education, South Carolina Music Educators Association, Music Teachers National Association, the American String Teacher Association and Strings Magazine.   

Ms. Dey earned degrees in viola performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a student of Sally Chisholm, and at the Eastman School of Music, where she served as teaching assistant to John Graham.  She has also studied with Heidi Castleman of the Juilliard School, Burton Kaplan of the Manhattan School of Music and Nokuthula Ngwenyama of Indiana University.  She performs on a viola made in 1991 by Tetsuo Matsuda.  Ms. Dey speaks fluent German, practices hatha yoga daily and together with her husband cellist Robert O'Brien, has been renovating a home in downtown Greenville, SC for the past ten years.