Today we’d like to introduce you to Kathryn Koch.
Hi Kathryn, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m a professional freelance violinist and I’ve been living in Atlanta for 6 years. I grew up in Buffalo, NY and knew I wanted to perform from a young age. My parents were always either carting me around to dance and theater classes, my improv group, violin and piano lessons, or videotaping my older siblings and I doing skits and plays that we had made up. I started violin lessons at age seven and was trained classically from day one, which means I was taught the styles of composers like Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven and played in orchestras my whole life. But I’ve always loved a wide range of styles of music and would spend my spare time listening to pop music, arranging my favorite songs for string quartet, or trying to discover my next favorite artist.
After a decade of practicing, and lots of auditioning, I left home to go to music school. I graduated with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in violin performance, and in 2015 I moved to Atlanta to start a freelance career. Since then, I’ve played with groups as diverse as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Atlanta Opera, to Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, Disturbed, Kishi Bashi, and Kygo at the Shaky Beats festival. I met local cellist Nick Ogawa in 2017 when I joined his band Takénobu, and since then we’ve toured the country several times, put out an album together (Conclusion, 2019), written another album during quarantine, and got married! Currently, I split my time between Takénobu and my freelance gigs, as well as having a small private teaching studio where I teach beginner violin.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Being in this field has been rewarding but not without its challenges. When you’re a freelancer, you have to deal with all of the aspects of being self-employed, like finding clients, making your own schedule, and toughing out times when there isn’t much work, all while not losing sight of the meaningful nature of the work you’re doing or what brought you there in the first place. Music starts as a passion, but once you’ve turned it into a career it’s easy to get bogged down by the day-to-day struggles and forget why you’re doing it. You also have to practice every day, much like an athlete does, because so much of your ability to perform relies on fine motor skills and the accuracy of very specific small muscle groups. So, learning how to combine inspiration with efficient and dutiful work is a delicate balance that needs constant maintenance, and this can be a real challenge if your mental state gets in the way. A by-product that I was left with after my schooling was an ultra-perfectionism that can get in the way of expressing myself freely, especially when I want to improvise something without the help of music in front of me, like a solo during a Takénobu show. But the only way to learn how to do this is to risk possible embarrassment and fail at it several times on stage before it starts to get easier. Having learned how to let go is a huge personal accomplishment because I spent decades thinking that playing a wrong note would be the worst thing in the world, and I have to override my anxious thoughts to attempt it, but it gets less scary every time and in turn I’ve learned to trust in my abilities more.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I think what has become my hallmark is my adaptability and flexibility between genres. My training has given me the skills to be able to play whatever is in front of me at a high level, and my enthusiasm for a wide range of genres has led me to some interesting places. I’ve been playing violin professionally for 6 years now, and I’ve gone from only playing classical music to being defined as a “crossover” artist. I perform, I collaborate, and I write, I teach, and I want to keep adding things to that list to continue to grow as a musician and as a person.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
It’s so important to find happiness not only in the work you’re doing, but outside of your career as well, because that will feed into your inspiration and sustain your creativity. Other than music, one of my greatest joys in life is my dog, Benny. I adopted him seven years ago, and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I also love to read, cook, hike, rollerskate, play board games, and travel. But I’m truly happiest when I’m surrounded by family, eating a homemade meal together, laughing and being nostalgic, with good wine on the table and dogs at my feet.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @kathrynreneekoch
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0gnKKarIUyBnDcORsbOdeY
Image Credits
Photos by Ang Santoro and Dave Adamson
Steve West
