Kate Speck is a cellist, recording artist, and composer from Western Massachusetts. Kate completed their Bachelors of Music at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2017 where they studied cello performance with Astrid Schween of the Juilliard String Quartet and Edward Arron. They spent five years as a Teaching Artist at Rainey Institute in Cleveland, OH where they taught string technique in the El Sistema program and launched a music production program. Currently, Kate now works as a freelance musician, composer, and music educator in the San Diego area.

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Kate has been playing cello since the age of eight, learning first through public school music programs. This fostered their appreciation for music teachers and music education. From a young age, Kate was interested in a variety of music and performance styles including classical, pop, rock, folk, jazz, and musical theater. They also dabbled with other instruments such as the guitar, upright bass, electric bass, and piano. The exploration of multiple instrument techniques and diversity of genres has widened Kate’s expression in music production, composing, and teaching.

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Kate has extensive experience with performing on cello. Most often, you can find Kate playing for orchestral performances and special events. They also play for musical and opera productions multiple times a year. Remotely, Kate works on freelance projects including cello recordings, composing, music production, and arranging. Currently, Kate has over two hundred arrangements published for various string ensembles. They compose original works for instruments spanning from solo cello to large ensembles to music for dance and media. Most recently, they composed and performed for Greta Nuñez's live dance piece "Christine & Catalina: Echoes Beneath the Surface" and dance film “Through That Door”.

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