Kathleen Winkler has earned critical plaudits since her solo debut at seventeen with the Philadelphia Orchestra. She has performed with the Detroit and Pittsburgh symphonies, the Danish Radio Orchestra, the Odense Byorkester, the Polish Slaska Philharmonic, and others. She has toured throughout North America and Europe, and won first prize in the first Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition, which led to debuts in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room, the Kennedy Center, and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The United States Information Agency selected her as an Artistic Ambassador for the U.S. on concert tours to Southeastern and East Asia, Oceania, the Middle East, and Africa.

An active chamber musician, Ms. Winkler has appeared at major music festivals throughout the country, and for six years with the Amabile Piano Quartet. Concert appearances include the Columbus Chamber Music Society, the Chamber Music Society of Chicago, and more.

A devoted mentor to young musicians, Kathleen Winkler is the recipient of Rice University’s Julia Mile Chance Award for excellence in teaching. Her students have received such awards as the Watson Fellowship, the Fulbright award, and the Pulitzer Prize in Music. Ms. Winkler has served on adjudication panels of the Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition, Walter W. Naumberg International Violin Competition, and many others.

Ms. Winkler has served on the faculties of Oberlin Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, Indiana University, and the University of Southern California. She currently holds the Dorothy Richard Starling Chair of Violin at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.