Acclaimed for her “admirable virtuoso skills” and “fine cantabile tone” (The News-Gazette), Amy Catron performs as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician in the United States and internationally. She has appeared as a soloist with the Charlotte (FL) Symphony Orchestra, the Illinois Symphony Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonia da Camera, the Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra, the Illini Symphony at the University of Illinois, Olivet Nazarene Symphony Orchestra, Millikin Wind Ensemble, Mississippi State University Band, and with the Baroque Artists of Champaign-Urbana. She is the principal cellist of the Starkville Symphony Orchestra and occasionally appears with the Alabama Symphony, Pensacola Symphony, Tuscaloosa Symphony, and Meridian Symphony. Until 2023, she served as the principal cellist with Sinfonia da Camera and the Millikin-Decatur Symphony, and as associate principal cellist with the Illinois Symphony and Chamber Orchestra. She collaborated with the Akron and Canton Symphonies in Ohio and the Richmond Symphony Orchestra in Virginia, and she was a full-time member of the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra in Florida.
As an avid promoter of new music, Dr. Catron has performed and premièred many works by composers, including Robert Chumbley, Michael Schelle, and Carlos Carillo. Her CD, Particles and Prayer, won a silver medal at the Global Music Awards in March 2019. Catron has performed several world premières, including Carlos Carillo’s O Casi el Alma for Cello and Orchestra, dedicated to her and commissioned in collaboration with Sinfonia da Camera. She has also performed world premières of, and recorded, Robert Chumbley’s Particle I for solo Cello, Particle II for Cello and Wind Ensemble, and Songs of the Siren for Cello and Piano.
An active researcher, Dr. Catron presents at numerous International and National conferences, including the International Society for Music Education and Community Music Activities Commission and World Conference, International Symposium for Sociology in Music Education, National College Music Society Conferences, Music by Women International Festival, the National Sigma Alpha Iota Conference, and more. Dr. Catron frequently publishes new music reviews in the National American String Teachers Association Magazine, serves on the ASTA Community Music Committee, is an associate editor for the International Journal of Education and the Arts, and has been published in Transform, a peer-reviewed journal of the International Centre for Community Music and in the College Music Society Forum.
Dr. Catron performs and teaches at music festivals, including InterHarmony International Music Festival (Italy), Varna International Festival, Five Cities Baroque Festival, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, Illinois Wesleyan Chamber and Cello Camps, Bands of America, Illinois Summer Youth Music Programs, and the International Chamber Music Festival in Bulgaria, where she was named Artistic Director for 2015. She has held faculty positions at Illinois Wesleyan and Illinois State Universities, and was formerly the String Area Coordinator at Millikin University School of Music and taught Suzuki Strings in the Decatur Public Schools.
Currently, Dr. Catron serves as String Area Coordinator and Assistant Teaching Professor of Cello at Mississippi State University, where she also collaborates with the Starkville-Oktibbeha Public Schools to develop curricula and implement high-quality, no-cost string education initiatives. She holds performance degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Akron and a DMA in Music Education from Boston University. She advanced her studies with Paul Katz, Yehuda Hanani, Carter Brey, and the Cleveland and Kronos Quartets. Her principal teachers were Michael Haber and Pamela Frame.