Dr. Kathryn Schmidt Steely, formerly Professor of Viola, Baylor University School of Music, is an enthusiastic mentor for students and received the Outstanding Professor Award for Teaching in 2007. Her students are regularly accepted into the country’s leading conservatories and summer music festivals and are active in a variety of music professions. She has been a featured presenter at American String Teachers Association National Conventions and has presented master classes across the country, including two guest residencies at the Oberlin College Conservatory. She has been honored to serve on several occasions as a jury member for the Primrose International Viola Competition.
An avid chamber musician, Steely frequently collaborates with colleagues in exploring the broad spectrum of repertoire for small ensembles. She has performed at several International Viola Congresses, American Viola Society Festivals, National Flute Conventions as a member of the Brazos Ensemble, the Mostly Music series of the University of Chicago, Austin Chamber Ensemble’s Armonico Chamber series, and with Austin Chamber Music Center. She is a founding faculty member of the Credo Chamber Music summer festival in Oberlin, Ohio. Recordings include a 2024 Centaur album, “Music for Flute, Viola, and Piano” featuring recently composed works for that combination and a 2010 album of the Flackton Viola Sonatas on MSR Classics, reviewed by Fanfare as “a delight.”
Steely is also an experienced orchestral violist and has performed with the Atlanta Opera, Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, Fort Worth Symphony, Dallas Chamber Orchestra, Fort Worth-Dallas Ballet, as a former core member of Florida’s Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, the Akron Symphony, Ohio Chamber Orchestra, and the Wichita Symphony. She performs regularly with Philharmonie Austin, a period instrument ensemble. Steely has served as president of the American Viola Society and editor of the Journal of the American Viola Society. She holds degrees from Bethel College, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Northwestern University.
