BORN IN: Petal, MS

LIVES IN: Monroe, LA

PLAYING SINCE: 2003

BIGGEST INFLUENCES: Ji Hye Jung, Gwendolyn Dease, Jon Weber, Brett Dietz

MOST MEMORABLE PERFORMANCE YOU PLAYED IN:  Toho Gakuen School of Music Performance for Keiko Abe

CAREER HIGHLIGHT: Performing for Keiko Abe in Tokyo

FAVOURITE SABIAN CYMBAL: HH Germanic Crash Cymbals

Kathryn is a percussion performer and educator from Petal, Mississippi. She has performed with scholastic and professional ensembles throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Performances include Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo for renowned percussionist Keiko Abe, Soochow University in Taiwan, the Cortona Sessions for New Music in Italy, the Eutiner Festspiele and Carl Maria von Weber Concert of Chamber Music in Germany, and the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Indianapolis. She has also led masterclasses and given clinics at schools in Taiwan and universities across the United States.

As an active soloist and chamber musician in the percussion community, Kathryn is an advocate of expanding the percussion repertoire and prioritizes commissioning new works. She has commissioned composers such as Elliot Cole, Molly Joyce, Joe W. Moore III, Brett William Dietz, and Dave Molk. She enjoys working on collaborative projects with artists of other mediums and professionals outside the field of music as well. The most recent commission of Is This Madness?, a work for solo percussion and electronics, aims to raise awareness and grow support for members of the bipolar community through performances and clinics. This project consisted of a collaboration with a member of the bipolar community, a licensed psychiatrist, and composer Joe W Moore III.

Dr. Irwin is currently the president of the Louisiana Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society, serves as a board member of the Monroe Symphony Orchestra and New Music on the Bayou. Her quartet, Without Borders, recently released an album with Chorphilia Records of String Quartet No. 5 by Béla Bartók, transcribed by Yun Ju Pan. Kathryn holds degrees from Michigan State University, University of Kansas, and Louisiana State University. Her primary teachers include Gwendolyn Dease, Jon Weber, Ji Hey Jung, and Brett William Dietz.