Kate M. Ransom, President and CEO
Kate M. Ransom currently maintains an active schedule of performances around the nation as chamber musician and recitalist. In over two decades as a performing artist, she has presented hundreds of concerts throughout the United States and in Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Devoted to organizational advancement of music schools, she has held executive positions at music schools since 1990 and is currently president and CEO of The Music School of Delaware, a position she has held since 1999.Ms. Ransom is violinist with the Serafin String Quartet, which has recently agreed to record its first commercial disc with Centaur. The Quartet has received superlatives in the press, actively performs in locations throughout the United States and is Ensemble-in-Residence at Lehigh University.
Prior to her work with the Serafins, her debut violin recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall received high praise in The New York Times, where the performance was described as: “Impassioned… considerable flair…a beautifully regulated account of the Brahms…a suitably misty and dark Debussy…clear articulation and unity of purpose.” Ms. Ransom was a founding and six-year member of the Alexander String Quartet during its early prize-winning years and rise to international recognition.
In addition to her work with the Serafin String Quartet, Ms. Ransom frequently collaborates with other artists and has presented chamber music concerts with founding cellist of the Tokyo Quartet Sadao Harada, with William Preucil (the Cleveland Orchestra’s concertmaster), with internationally acclaimed guitarist Eliot Fisk, and with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland, Atlanta and National Symphonies, the Empire Brass Quintet, and with the Lark, Ciompi, Blair and Vega String Quartets.
Her performances include those in major chamber music concert halls around the world, including New York’s Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Symphony Space and Lincoln Center; at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; Teatro Real in Madrid; Wigmore Hall and the Warwick Gallery in London; and in Washington, D.C., at the Library of Congress.
A regular guest artist at the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival in North Carolina, Ms. Ransom has participated in numerous other festivals, including Garth Newel, Sewanee Summer Music Festival, Norfolk Festival, Fanfare Festival and others. She is currently an adjunct faculty member at Lehigh University and has been a visiting faculty member at University of Delaware, State University of New York-Potsdam, St. Lawrence University and Brevard College. She often presents concerts, lecture-recitals and master classes at colleges and universities, having visited scores of locations around the country in this capacity.
Ms. Ransom earned degrees from Yale School of Music (M.M.) and University of Michigan School of Music (B.M., magna cum laude) and pursued post-graduate chamber music studies at The Juilliard School. She was a violin student of Paul Makanowitzky, Szymon Goldberg and Ivan Galamian and a chamber music protégé of the Tokyo String Quartet.
She has been featured on WQXR (New York), Radio London, Radio France and National Public Radio. Her recording credits include those on Gallo and CRI Records, a recording of works for oboe and strings, “Under a Near Sky” on the Klavier label, and the Serafin String Quartet recording project with Centaur Records, soon to be completed. Ms. Ransom plays a violin made in 1728 by the Venetian master, Sanctus Serafin.
“Impassioned…the [Ransom/Sirianni] Duo played with considerable flair...a beautifully regulated account of the Brahms...a suitably misty and dark Debussy...Mozart’s sonata benefited from a clear articulation and unity of purpose.” - The New York Times
“Every note was played so well, every nuance so worked out, that the event was almost like listening to a flawless recording.” - The Nashville Tennessean
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Programs are made possible, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
