
“Exquisite tone and phrasing”
Birmingham Post
Biography
Catherine studied classical saxophone at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with John Harle and Christian Forshaw, graduating with a first class honours degree in 2007 and a master’s degree with distinction in 2014.
As a soloist, Catherine has reached the semi-final of the Royal Overseas League Music Competition and was runner up in The Needlemaker’s Prize. She is a composer, favouring saxophone and electronics and has premiered her works at both The Forge, Camden and Milton Court. As a chamber musician with saxophone quartet ‘Quadrophonia’, Catherine won the CASS quartet competition and reached the finals of the St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Music Competition, The Tunnell Trust Scheme and the semi-finals of the Royal Overseas League Chamber Music competition. Catherine was the Principal Alto Saxophonist with the National Saxophone Choir of Great Britain for 4 years, in which time she performed several concerti at venues such as the Beijing Concert Hall, the CBSO centre and Mahidol University in Bangkok.
Catherine has a diverse range of experience as an educator. She has lectured on music education at The Guildhall School and Trinity Laban; taught the saxophone at City University and Junior Guildhall and was Education Director for the 2012 World Saxophone Congress. She is the founder and Director of Mosaic Music Education Ltd; winners of the Deutsche Bank Award for Creative Enterprise, The Amati Global Investors Award and Guildhall School Creative Entrepreneurship Award. Through the company she creates music education resources for young instrumentalists and supports new teachers in their practice. For many years Catherine worked as a woodwind teacher in London, as well as a stint as Director of Music at St. Aubyn’s School in London.
In 2021 Catherine moved to Scotland where she works as a freelance saxophonist and teacher. She holds the positions of visiting professor of Saxophone at the University of St. Andrew’s and the University of Aberdeen and alongside Mike Brogan is a Musical Director of Aberdeenshire Saxophone Orchestra. Catherine also works regularly with the Scottish Saxophone Academy, Fife Saxophone School and as a practitioner for the National Youth Choir of Scotland.