She is a cellist born in Iowa who began learning the piano when she was 5 years old and moved on to the cello when she was 10. She took studies at the University of Wisconsin and earned her Bachelor of Music at the University of Illinois. Further studies for her Master of Music degree were taken at Boston University.
She became the last appointee of Eugene Ormandy when she joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1979. Since then she has regularly worked on the orchestra’s committees and been an active volunteer for their fundraising events. As a chamber musician she has given performances with the orchestra’s string quartet.
In 1996 she was presented with C. Hartman Kuhn Award for “a musician who has shown both musical ability and enterprise of such character to enhance the musical standards and reputation of The Philadelphia Orchestra”.
Recordings she has performed on include Peter and the Wolf by David Bowie, Eugene Ormandy Conducts Mozart Wind Concertos and Peter Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 “Pathetique”/Dumka by The Philadelphia Orchestra.
In musical education she has been an adjunct Professor at Temple University and a faculty member of the Philadelphia International Music Festival and the New School of Music. She has been a teacher at the Festival of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of the Americas in Puerto Rico and been an attendee at the Grand Teton Music Festival.
She performs here…
Sources:
- https://philadelphiamusicfestival.org/our-faculty/strings/kathryn-picht-read/
- https://boyer.temple.edu/about/faculty-staff/kathryn-picht-read-414
- https://www.tpschool.org/blog/2017/2/24/rehearsing-with-philadelphia-orchestra-cellist
- https://www.tuj.ac.jp/news/2019/10/29/philadelphia-orchestras-2019-tour-japan/
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/4625565-Kathryn-Picht-Read
- https://raru.co.za/music/3060575-david-bowie-peter-and-the-wolf-vinyl
- https://raru.co.za/music/5755138-mozart-ormandy-eugene-ormandy-conducts-mozart-wind-concertos-cd