Caity Keen, BM, MS, MM
Based in the San Francisco Bay area, Violist and Violinist Caitlin Keen is an active chamber musician and educator on both modern and baroque instruments.
As a soloist on violin as well as viola she has performed with orchestras in Colorado, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania; and as principal violist she has worked with the Merced Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Conservatory, Smith College Orchestra, Putney School Orchestra, Island City Opera, and the American Bach Soloists Academy. As a session musician she records for artists representing diverse genres, and is the violin soundtrack for the educational Disney video “Meet the Strings”.
Dedicated to education, she maintains a private studio in Alameda, California and has been teaching for two decades. As a lecturer she has held posts at the University of California at Davis, Smith College, as staff at Johns Hopkins University, and substitute teacher at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She has served as a string coach for numerous youth ensembles, including most recently the Youth Orchestra Gradus ad Parnassum and the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra. She specializes in upper string pedagogy for early childhood and different learners, as well as performance issues and injury prevention for string players.
As founder and director of String Assembly, she works towards equity and representation in classical music, and is the founder and director of the Alameda Music Teachers’ Association in Alameda, California.
Caitlin holds a Violin Performance degree from Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, with an additional emphasis on education, where she served as the representative to the Maryland Higher Education Commission. With a focus on motor learning, pedagogy and performance, she holds a Masters in Science in Sport and Exercise Studies from Smith College. She additionally has a Masters of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in Viola Performance.
While at conservatory Caitlin was an All-American Rower and multi-year team captain at Johns Hopkins University. As a coach she held positions at the NCAA division I, III and masters levels, and co-founded the Notre Dame Preparatory Rowing program in Maryland.
She lives in Alameda with her partner, where they are outnumbered by children, instruments, animals, and coffee-making devices.