Katharine Rapoport is an avid chamber musician who has performed with groups in Europe, the United States and Canada. Her interest in new music led to a long-time involvement with Esprit Orchestra, “Canada’s premier orchestra devoted to the performance of new works”. Katharine Rapoport taught violin and viola performance, string literature and pedagogy to undergraduate and graduate students as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto for over 25 years.
She has adjudicated at competitions and festivals and has given violin and viola masterclasses and workshops across Canada and the US. As a Senior Examiner for RCM Examinations, she was regularly invited to speak at conferences throughout North America. With over 50 publications of Syllabi, playing editions, pedagogical texts and articles to her credit, she is the author of Violin For Dummies in the popular series published by Wiley’s, now published in its Third Edition.She was for many years the conductor of the RCM Chamber Orchestra, and founded the University of Toronto Viola Ensemble. She also taught String Methodology at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music.
Her students’ distinctions include winning scholarships to Juilliard, Eastman, and other major music schools in the US and Canada, first place awards at the Provincial and National levels of the Canadian Federation of Music Festivals, and membership of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. Her former students play with orchestras including the Boston Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra and Tafelmusik, as well as in chamber ensembles in Canada and the US.
