Originally from Cherry Hill, NJ, a suburb of Philadelphia, Katherine has enjoyed serving as concertmaster and in the violin section of orchestras around the world including Philadelphia, Chicago, Italy, Colorado, and Florida where her playing was described by the Palm Beach Arts Paper as “lovely, poised and accomplished”. Katherine currently holds a section violin position in the Sarasota Orchestra and also plays often with the Atlanta Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, and the Florida Orchestra. During her summers, she has participated in music festivals such as the Artosphere Festival, National Repertory Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival and the St. Augustine Music Festival.

Katherine is passionate about arts education and in addition to serving as adjunct faculty at Sarasota’s Booker Performing Arts High School as their orchestra director, she also founded the Katherine B. Violin Academy where she teaches a full studio of private violin students from around the world, both virtually and in person. She also holds faculty positions at the Sarasota Music Conservatory and the Dali Quartet International Music Festival in Philadelphia and serves as the personnel manager of the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra.

Also an avid chamber musician, her string quartet won first prize in the 2016 Lyric Chamber Music Society of New York competition and gave their New York City debut concert in May 2017. She has been mentored by the Penderecki Quartet, the Atrium Quartet, the Arianna Quartet and the Dali Quartet and by members of the Cavani and Bergonzi Quartets.

After beginning the violin at age 10, she went on to make her solo debut at age 15 performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the Ocean City Pops Orchestra and has since appeared as soloist with various other orchestras. In 2010 she was awarded the NJ Governor’s Award in Arts and Education and the same year, the mayor of Cherry Hill proclaimed April 12th “Katherine Baloff Day” in honor of her contributions to the community and representation of her hometown in several local and national orchestra competitions.

Katherine earned her Master’s Degree and Professional Performance Certificate in violin performance at the Lynn Conservatory of Music in Boca Raton, Florida with Elmar Oliveira and earned her Bachelor’s Degree from DePaul University’s School of Music in Chicago, where she studied with Ilya Kaler. She currently plays on a 2004 Benjamin Ruth violin and resides in Sarasota with her violinist husband and 3 foster-turned-adopted cats.