Catherine Forbes’s multi-faceted career as soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player and pedagogue has taken her throughout the U.S. and to Canada, Mexico and Europe.

Ms. Forbes completed her graduate studies at the New England Conservatory of Music, where she served as teaching assistant to Heidi Castleman. She is renowned as a gifted teacher, and her students have been prizewinners in local and national competitions, perform regularly with symphony orchestras and continue to pursue education at major conservatories in the United States and abroad.

Ms. Forbes has served on the faculty of Hardin-Simmons University and the Phillips Academy in Andover MA and has taught at the Orquesta Sinfonica Juvenil de Nuevo Leon, in Monterrey, Mexico, the Heifetz International Music Institute in Wolfboro, New Hampshire and The Institute for Strings in Dallas.

Ms. Forbes was assistant principal violist of the Boston Philharmonic and the Santa Fe Chamber Orchestra, and was principal violist of the Cullowhee Chamber Orchestra and the Abilene Philharmonic. An enthusiastic chamber musician, she served as violist of the Andover Chamber Players in Massachusetts, the Cullowhee Resident String Quartet at Midwestern State University, NC and the Abilene Chamber Players. She has performed as guest artist with the West End Chamber Players and Spectrum Chamber Players of Fort Worth TX. She toured New England with Musica Nova, premiering newly commissioned chamber music pieces to the acclaim of the Boston Globe.

While living in the Dallas area she has performed regularly with the Dallas Opera, the Dallas Chamber Orchestra and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

A noted advocate for the viola, Ms. Forbes is founding director of Bratsche con Brio, an ensemble devoted to the performance of compositions written for multiple violas. The group actively commissions new pieces for this medium and presents formal and educational concerts internationally and throughout the state of Texas. Their first CD, featuring Bratsche con Brio Live at the XXVII International Viola Congress in Canada, was released this season.

Ms. Forbes founded and directs the U.T.A. Viola Recital / Lecture Series, now in its sixteenth season and host to many internationally acclaimed violists. She held national office as Secretary of the American Viola Society for a four year tenure.

Catherine Forbes is currently based in Arlington, Texas where she is viola professor at The University of Texas at Arlington and recent recipient of the National Founder’s Award for excellence in performance, teaching and service to the American Viola Society.