Catherine Kautsky, Chair of Keyboard at Lawrence University in Appleton, WI, has been
lauded by the New York Times as “a pianist who can play Mozart and Schubert as though their
sentiments and habits of speech coincided exactly with hers … The music spoke directly to the
listener, with neither obfuscation nor pretense.” She was the 2016 winner of the Lawrence
Excellence in Teaching Award, the 2013 winner of the university’s Faculty Convocation Award,
and in 2017 she was honored with the George and Marjorie Olsen Chandler Chair in Music. Her
recording of the Debussy Preludes, released by Centaur in September, 2014, was said to “bring
out all the power, majesty, and mystery of Debussy’s conception,“ and a recording of the
complete Brahms Sonatas for Violin and Piano was released in 2019 to top reviews. Ms.
Kautsky, whose teachers included Rosina Lhevinne, Gyorgy Sebok, Leon Fleisher, Martin
Canin, and Gilbert Kalish, has concertized widely, performing in major halls such as Alice Tully
Hall, Carnegie Recital Hall, the Phillips Collection, Jordan Hall, and the Chicago Cultural
Center. She has soloed with numerous orchestras, including the St. Louis Symphony and
Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, and appeared frequently on public radio. She has spent two
sabbaticals in Paris and played abroad in France, England, Italy, Spain, Poland, China, Hong
Kong, Korea, Thailand, Brazil, Australia, Russia, and South Africa. Known as both a solo and
collaborative performer, Ms. Kautsky has performed chamber music at the Aspen, Tanglewood,
and Grand Teton Festivals, and presented masterclasses on five continents, including 2018
appearances in Hong Kong, Ho Chi Minh City, and Hanoi.
Ms. Kautsky, whose students have won prizes across the country and gone on to leading
graduate programs, has taught at Lawrence University Conservatory of Music since 1987, with a
6 -year hiatus as piano faculty and chair of the Keyboard Dept. at University of Wisconsin-
Madison. Known for her cross-disciplinary interests, she was awarded the Arts Institute Creative
Arts Award at UW-Madison and has presented frequently at national conferences on such topics
as “On the Trail of Chopin and George Sand,” “WWI: A Centenary Look at the Musical Wars, “
and “Celebrating Debussy and the Arts du Spectacle.” Her articles have appeared in Clavier
Companion, American Music Teacher, and International Piano, and her book, Debussy’s Paris:
Piano Portraits of the Belle Epoque, was published by Rowman & Littlefield in September 2017.
Reviewed by Booklist as “a fascinating fusion of music, literature, and social history,” it has won
accolades from eminent pianists across the country. Ms. Kautsky is also deeply concerned with
the role music plays in society and administers a series of prison concerts in WI as well as
heading a chapter of Music for Food.
Dr. Kautsky has just released a 24 video set, “Great Works for the Piano” for Great
Courses/Wondrium, and is also presenting courses on piano literature for the Juilliard Extension
Division and the 92 nd Str. Y of New York City. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the New
England Conservatory, a master’s from the Juilliard School, and a doctorate from the State
University of New York at Stony Brook.