Dr. Amy Catron

Acclaimed for her “admirable virtuoso skills,” Amy Catron is an accomplished cellist, researcher, and pedagogue. She performs as the principal cellist of the Starkville Symphony Orchestra and collaborates with the Alabama Symphony, Mississippi Symphony, Meridian Symphony, Pensacola Symphony, and Tuscaloosa Symphony. Until 2023, she served as associate principal cellist with the Illinois Symphony and Chamber Orchestra, and as principal cellist with Sinfonia da Camera and the Millikin-Decatur Symphony. She has appeared as a soloist with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (Florida), the Illinois Symphony Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonia da Camera, the Illini Symphony, Olivet Nazarene Symphony Orchestra, and with the Baroque Artists of Champaign-Urbana. Previously, she was a member of the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra, and her CD, Particles and Prayer, earned a silver medal in the Global Music Awards in 2019.

Currently, Dr. Catron serves as String Area Coordinator and is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Cello at Mississippi State University, where she also collaborates with the Starkville-Oktibbeha Public Schools in cultivating a vibrant string education program. As a passionate community music advocate, Catron founded and facilitates a community cello choir and is a member of the American String Teachers Association Community Music Committee.

Dr. Catron teaches and performs at the InterHarmony International Music Festival and the Five Cities Baroque Festival and previously taught and performed at the 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. As a researcher, she has presented at prestigious conferences, including the International Symposium for Sociology in Music Education, International Society for Music Education, and the Suzuki Association of the Americas National Conference. Amy regularly contributes reviews to the American String Teachers Journal and serves as an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Education and the Arts. Catron holds performance degrees from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester and the University of Akron, as well as a DMA in Music Education from Boston University.

In addition to teaching and researching, Catron avidly seeks ways to share her love of music in any context where there is room for more cello.