A B O U T

Dr. Kathryn Vetter is an internationally award-winning clarinetist based in New York City. She enjoys performing contemporary classical music and is committed to programing and commissioning new works for clarinet. Kathryn performed at the 66th Festival Internazionale di Musica Contemporanea during La Biennale di Venezia, where she was awarded “Best Performance.” As a soloist, she won the 2018 Contemporary Performance Competition at the Cortona Sessions for New Music in Cortona, Italy. In 2020, Kathryn commissioned, recorded, and mastered Sputter Box’s first EP Sputter (SHRINKS THE) Box and released solo tracks by Ali Balighi, Erica Glenn, and Kimberly Osberg. Kathryn regularly performs solo recitals at the International Clarinet Association’s annual ClarinetFest conferences, including performances in Dublin, Ireland, Denver, Colorado, and Reno, Nevada.

Kathryn is the founding clarinetist of Sputter Box, a clarinet, voice, percussion ensemble and Nu Quintet, a woodwind quintet. Sputter Box was a grant recipient of the Harvard University FROMM Music Foundation Commission Grant (2021) with composer DM R, Chamber Music America Ensemble Forward Grant (2024, 2021), Brooklyn Arts Council Arts Fund Grant (2024), and Queens Arts Fund (2022), and has been guest artists at the University of Florida and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Nu Quintet has been featured in the Flute Center of New York’s Salon Series, the Montgomery Chamber Music Series, and regularly performs at Chelsea Market. Nu was a 2024 recipient of the New York Women Composers Seed Money Grant and hosts an annual Nu Works concert at DiMennna Center for Classical Music. As a freelance chamber musician, Kathryn has also performed with Contemporaneous, infraSound, and Collide-O-Scope Music, and regularly performs at the Saturdays at Six Concert Series at All Souls’ Episcopal Church in Stony Brook, New York. In 2022, she performed at the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival.

As an orchestral musician, she has previously performed with the New York Philharmonic Very Young Composers, Juilliard Lab Orchestra, Painted Sky Opera, Ohio Light Opera, Oklahoma Festival Ballet, and Norman Philharmonic. In 2018, Kathryn performed as a soloist with the Oklahoma Community Orchestra after winning their Young Artists Competition. She has previously performed at the International Clarinet Association’s ClarinetFest (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024), Carnegie Hall (2014), The International Midwest Clinic (2013, 2008), and North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial conference (2016, saxophone) and Region IV conference (2017, clarinet).

Kathryn has also contributed to the contemporary classical music field through her research. She presented a lecture recital on Kaija Saariaho's Duft for solo clarinet at the Music by Women Festival in Columbus, Mississippi (2017) and presented research on Saariaho's clarinet works at the Norton Lecture Series at the University of Oklahoma in March 2018. This research is discussed in detail in her master's thesis titled Slowing Down and the Vertical/Horizontal Spectrum in Kaija Saariaho's Duft. In 2019, Kathryn presented a lecture recital at Stony Brook University titled Medieval Depictions in Kaija Saariaho’s “D’OM LE VRAI SENS” and Comparative Performance Decisions to “Duft” for Solo Clarinet.” Her final doctoral paper discusses Ruth Crawford Seeger’s authorship role in Charles Seeger’s treatise.

Dr. Vetter currently teaches music theory and ear training at Mannes Prep at The New School in New York, New York and is an Adjunct Music Professor at Five Towns College in Dix Hills, New York where she teaches Graduate Contemporary Performance, Woodwind Methods, Intro to Music Education, Secondary Music Methods, and Elementary Music Methods. In the Spring of 2022, Dr. Vetter was the sabbatical replacement Professor of Clarinet for Dr. Suzanne Tirk at the University of Oklahoma, where she taught the clarinet studio and coached chamber music ensembles. She was the band director at Saint Andrew Avellino Academy in Flushing, Queens and currently teaches a private studio of clarinet, saxophone, and flute students. Her current students range from ages 0-65 years old and former students have successfully auditioned into Juilliard Pre-College, Manhattan School of Music Precollege, and undergraduate and graduate music degree programs throughout the country. Dr. Vetter was the undergraduate clarinet instructor at Stony Brook University from 2018-2020. At Stony Brook, she also was the teaching assistant for Rock, Popular Music, and Society (2018-2019), served as the Social Media Manager for the music department (2019-2021), and assisted the Director of Undergraduate Music Studies in reassessing undergraduate requirements (2019-2020). In the spring of 2016, Dr. Vetter held a maternity-leave replacement for Dr. Suzanne Tirk at the University of Oklahoma, where she taught and managed the clarinet studio. Dr. Vetter also won the OU Provost's Certificate of Distinction in Teaching and taught collegiate music theory and aural skills classes through her music theory graduate teaching assistantship (2015-2018).

Kathryn earned her doctorate of musical arts in clarinet performance at Stony Brook University. She earned her master’s degrees in clarinet performance and music theory from the University of Oklahoma and a bachelor’s in music education from Michigan State University. Her primary teachers include Alan Kay, Dr. Suzanne Tirk, Dr. Guy Yehuda, Ted Oien, Dr. Caroline Hartig, and Sarah Bednarcik on classical clarinet and Dr. Derrick Newbold on jazz clarinet and saxophone. Originally from New Jersey, Kathryn now resides in Brooklyn.

Education

DMA in Clarinet Performance: Stony Brook University

MM in Clarinet Performance: University of Oklahoma

MM in Music Theory: University of Oklahoma

BM in Music Education: Michigan State University