Catharine Lees, Professor of Viola and Geraldine B. Gee Chair of Viola, celebrates her 28th year on the faculty of CCM this year, where she also served as Chairman of the String Department from 2009–2017. An active recitalist, chamber musician, pedagogue, and andragogue, Dr. Lees has received numerous nominations for the Glover Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award, the Dolly Cohen Award for Excellence in Teaching, and was recipient of the American Viola Society Founders Award and awarded the Certificate of Appreciation by the International Viola Society. Recent notable achievements include her service as Host Chair of the 2010 International Viola Congress, Founder and Coordinator of the 2017–2020 International Event Exchange between Sookmyung Women’s University (Seoul, Korea) and CCM, and a unique collaboration in the Borden Research Project which successfully quantified the positive affect of live classical music vs. recorded or no music in pain and anxiety management with post-surgical patients at the Bethesda North Hospital. Principal Violist for 25 seasons of the Aspen Chamber Symphony at the Aspen Music Festival where she was a member of the Artist/Faculty from 1994–2016, Dr. Lees has also served as Principal Viola of the Cincinnati Ballet Orchestra, and guest Principal on numerous occasions of the Cincinnati Chamber and Aspen Festival Orchestras. In addition to guest appearances at festivals within the United States, Dr. Lees currently spends her summers teaching and performing in Europe.

Dr. Lees has been featured on numerous occasions as soloist with many orchestras including the Aspen Chamber Symphony, CCM Chamber Players, “Wired”, the Cincinnati Philharmonia Orchestra, among others. As a chamber musician, she has collaborated on numerous occasions with the world’s most prominent artists including Timothy Lees, Maxim Vangerov, Gil Shaham, Adele Anthony, Jaime Laredo, Sarah Chang, Alisa Weilerstein, Don Weilerstein, Vivian Weilerstein, Ida Kavafian, Peter Wiley, Steve Tenenbom, Joseph Swensen, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Koichiro Harada, Paul Kanter, David Perry, Ilya Kahler, Benny Kim, Kurt Nikkanen, Janet Sung, Alex Kerr, Philip Ruder, Sylvia Rosenberg, Thomas Grossenbacher, Andrew Shulman, Eric Kim, Owen Lee, James Tocco, Anton Nel, John O’Conner, Gabriel Chodos, Sandra Rivers, Burt Hara, Richie Hawley, Dick Woodhams, Bonita Boyd, Eugene Levinson, members of the Tokyo, Cleveland, American, Fine Arts, LaSalle, Pacifica, and Amernet Quartets, the Beaux Arts Trio, and has been featured on chamber music series including the Linton Music, 801 Plum, Chamber Music in Dublin, Aspen Winter, and Aspen Music Festival Faculty Artist Series, in Chateau Faculty Chamber Music Concerts at the Rencontres Musicales Internationales des Graves in Bordeaux, France, as well as at the United Nations Italian Consulate. In addition, she has been featured in broadcasts on WGUC, WFMT, NHK Radio, CBS Sunday Morning, NPR, and WOSU.

Dr. Lees’ passion for teaching and the advancement of pedagogy/andragogy began with her collaboration with Dorothy DeLay resulting in a basic technique regimen, Essentials for Viola. This collection of exercises are widely used by Dr. Lees’ students, many of whom have claimed top prizes in international competitions (such as Tertis, Sphinx, Markneuenkirche, Aspen Music Festival), won positions in many major symphony orchestras (such as Cincinnati