Katrina Kratzer

From a young age, Katrina (Kat) Glaze was drawn to music. Her talents began in toddlerhood; humming, strumming on a plastic toy guitar and singing songs with her dad were evidenced at this early age. When her parents realized that she had musical ability at the young age of two, they determined to put her in lessons as early as a teacher would take her into their studio. A week after turning four years old, Kat began taking classical violin lessons from Linda Rogers near her home in Long Beach, California. All at once, it was apparent that she had a good ear for picking up melodies, site-reading music, and a confidence in performing. This also came with a tendency to not want to practice the music in front of her, but rather make up her own melodies. She was soon making music with a bluegrass band at the young age of 7 after taking fiddle lessons and winning 1st place in her division at the Orange County Fair.

As a premier member of the Young Musicians Foundation in Los Angeles, California, Kat had the privilege of working on the soundtrack for the motion picture, Music of the Heart, starring Meryl Streep and performing with Mark O'Conner at the Democratic National Convention in 2000. After moving to Texas in 2001 with her family, Kat continued to take both classical lessons with Kurt Sprenger and fiddle lessons with Joey Mckenzie until she graduated high school in 2005. While attending Texas Tech University, Kat had the privilege of studying under Dr. Kirsten Yon (classical) and Dr. Christopher Smith (Celtic/Improv) through which she learned that her professional path had many directions and the traditional route was never going to be the one meant for her. Throughout her college career she was a member of the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra under Tomasz Golka and performed regularly with the Texas Tech University Celtic Ensemble where she learned to dance, expanded on her improvisational skills, and fell in love with the traditional folk music. After successfully performing the Barber Violin Concerto with the Texas Tech University Symphony Orchestra, Kat was invited to attend the International Music Academy in Plzen, Czech Republic for six weeks. It was here that she studied under Dr. Stephen Shipps (University of Michigan) and renowned jazz and improvisation fiddler Dr. Brad Phillps.

Upon graduating, she returned to Dallas finding a competitive place as a go-to violinist in the theater community. In this role she has played in pit orchestras/bands for award winning companies such as Lyric Stage, WaterTower Theatre, and Dallas Theater Center. She has even found herself on stage a couple of times in productions of A Christmas Carol (Dallas Theater Center) and Ring of Fire (WaterTower Theatre). She also continues to perform with other local artists in Dallas as an improv specialist while teaching violin/fiddle lessons out of her home.