Season Artists

Kathleen Butler-Hopkins is a violinist who has concertized in major forums in the United States and Europe. She is a veteran of the Tanglewood Festival, the Meadowmount School of Music, and the “Yale in Norfolk” summer music programs, and her many concert credits include performances in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, and the Kennedy Center as well European venues such as Vienna’s Musikverein and Salzburg’s Schloss Leopoldskron. In addition to her activities as soloist and chamber musician, she has served as assistant concertmaster of the Boston Civic Symphony, and as concertmaster of other regional orchestras along the east coast, including the Adelphi Orchestra. She is on the faculty at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey as an adjunct professor of violin, viola, and chamber music, and is a member of the Hobart Piano Trio faculty ensemble. She is also a freelance violinist in the tri-state area and beyond.

Dr. Butler-Hopkins was awarded the rank of Professor Emerita of Violin, Viola, and Chamber Music from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She holds Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Musical Arts degrees from Yale University School of Music.  She received both Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School and attended the Curtis Institute of Music. Dr. Butler-Hopkins received a summer stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities to study the string quartets of Beethoven at Harvard University. Under the auspices of the Fulbright-Hays Fellowship Program, she completed a year of study at the Vienna State Academy in Austria.

At the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Dr. Butler-Hopkins served as concertmaster and soloist with the Fairbanks Symphony and the Arctic Chamber Orchestra and as a founding member of the Alaska Trio, the Alaska Chamber Ensemble, and the Alaska Chamber Players. Dr. Butler-Hopkins has also appeared as violin and viola soloist with the Fairbanks Youth Orchestra and as violin soloist with the UAF Jazz Band. She performed as concertmaster for orchestras with the Western Opera Theater, Opera Fairbanks, the Fairbanks Light Opera Theatre, and the Fairbanks Choral Arts Orchestra.  Her distinguished students have furthered their studies at The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, San Francisco Conservatory, Peabody, and Oberlin among others, and have attended Tanglewood, Meadowmount, Bowdoin, Encore, and the Indiana Summer String Academy. They have also won prizes in MTNA competitions, the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, and National Suzuki conferences. Many are members of orchestras throughout the United States and Europe.

Dr. Butler-Hopkins is currently a regular faculty member at the Northeast Chamber Music Seminar (Avaloch Farm, Concord, NH), formerly the Lake Placid Institute for the Arts and Humanities Chamber Music Seminar, and was the founder of String Fling, a chamber music program for Alaskan pre-college students. Dr. Butler-Hopkins contributed to Strings magazine, was twice a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University, has numerous “Who’s Who” listings, and is a member of Phi Kappa Phi. She received several UAF College of Liberal Arts Excellence in Teaching Awards, was named String Teacher of the Year by the Alaska String Teachers Association and was a recipient of the prestigious Usibelli Distinguished Service Award at UAF.