Dr. Catherine Keen Hock exemplifies the innovative spirit of the contemporary classical musician. Living in Greensboro, North Carolina, Cat (as she is called by her friends) performs and teaches throughout the southeastern United States. Cat is an avid supporter of new music, especially chamber music, and frequently collaborates with local composers and new music ensembles. Cat is a founding member of the award-winning reed ensemble Quintet Sirocco. In 2007, Cat was a founding member of the Obsidian Clarinet Quartet, premiering two original compositions at the 2008 conference for the International Clarinet Association, ClarinetFest, in Kansas City. Cat is a member of the Piedmont Wind Symphony, the bass clarinetist for the Fayetteville Symphony and Salisbury Symphony Orchestra, plays clarinet/bass clarinet with WireTap New Music Ensemble (Durham, NC), and serves on the woodwind faculty at the Music Academy of North Carolina. Cat also enjoys sharing her love of music history as program essayist for the Eastern Music Festival.
Cat completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree (DMA) in clarinet performance at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2012 where she was a graduate teaching assistant for the clarinet studio and jazz studies program. Her degree includes a cognate in jazz studies, and she also completed a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Historical Musicology during her doctoral studies. Cat's dissertation, "The Pivotal Role of Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time in the Establishment of the Clarinet-Piano Quartet Genre" reflects her passion for contemporary chamber music and examines the historical and socio-economic factors that have contributed to its current prominence within the classical music culture. While at UNCG, she was a member of the Wind Ensemble (performing at CBDNA in Austin, Texas in 2009), University Symphony Orchestra, Casella Sinfonietta and Jazz Ensemble II. Cat also earned a MM in Clarinet Performance from UNCG in 2007 and a BA with Honors in Music Performance with a minor in International Studies from Wake Forest University in 2005. At Wake Forest, Cat was a William L. Poteat Scholar, winner of the Concerto Competition and Giles-Harris Competition for Performance, and a drum major for the Spirit of the Old Gold and Black Marching Band. Also while at Wake Forest, Cat spent a magical semester in Venice, Italy, where she studied at the Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello and traveled Europe experiencing performances by the world's leading orchestras and opera companies. She studied clarinet with Kelly Burke, Anthony Taylor, Edwin Riley, Eileen Young and Michael Waddell.
In recent years, Cat has discovered a love of North Carolina's state tree, the long leaf pine, after planting several acres of seedlings with her younger brother on their family farm in Four Oaks. When she isn't back home on the farm, Cat enjoys attending sporting events, exploring the tastes of North Carolina's craft breweries with her husband Noah (a professional violist), and experiencing a view of the world through the eyes of her brilliantly curious daughter, Clara and son, Avery.
