This is Kathy Hart’s twenty-ninth season conducting the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra Association’s Sinfonia Orchestra. She is also the General Manager for the Youth Orchestra Association.  During her tenure, the ensembles have grown from three orchestras serving 120 students to six orchestras serving over 350 students.  As a high school student, she was a violinist in the KSYO when her family moved to Knoxville in the 1980’s.  

Kathy began her music connection with the Suzuki Method in Western New York State.  Her environment was filled with a great deal of love and support from family and teachers.  She graduated from the University of Tennessee with a concentration in Suzuki Pedagogy.  Hart-Strings, her private violin studio has over 50 students ages 4-18 who perform several times in the community each year.  Many Hart-Strings violinists are KSYO members.

She created the youth orchestra’s annual music camp program with 15 string students and one assistant in.  Music Camp has served over 3900 students since 1994.

Kathy is an adjunct lecturer at the University of Tennessee where she teaches the String Methods courses and assists string education majors in field experience and observation. She has volunteered with several school string programs and was instrumental in bringing the orchestra program back to Bearden High School in 1998.  Kathy has also been a guest conductor for ETSBOA, had students selected in the National Youth Orchestra of the USA and has been recognized eight times with an Outstanding Teacher Award from the state of Tennessee Governor’s School of the Arts.  In 2020, she was honored as a finalist in the YWCA’s Tribute to Women.