Kathryn Macintosh
Assistant Principal
Trombone
While in her early twenties, Kathryn joined the Edmonton Symphony as Assistant Principal trombone. Born in Montréal, she spent her formative years in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, where early experiences with piano lessons and choral singing ignited her enthusiasm for classical music. Kathryn attended Acadia University and the University of Toronto, where she majored in trombone performance under Gordon Sweeney. She enjoyed further studies with Dennis Miller and Pierre Beaudry, of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, and masterclasses at the Banff Centre and Domaine Forget.
In addition to the ESO, as an orchestral musician Kathryn has appeared with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Hamilton Philharmonic, the Calgary Philharmonic, and the Saskatoon Symphony. She has always been drawn to the intimacy of chamber music, and ever since her arrival in Edmonton, has been an initiator of projects for various smaller ensembles.
From 2013 to 2023 Kathryn led the C'mon(Chamber music old & new) Festival, which sought to draw more diverse audiences to classical music in Edmonton. Multi-displiplinary collaborations were a regular feature of festival programming and led to a critically acclaimed, sold out run at the 2018 Edmonton International Fringe Festival of Stravinsky's "Soldier's Tale". In 2020 she co-produced an hour-long documentary film, "Chamber" which featured performances by several Alberta classical musicians and explored the effects of the pandemic on them.
Kathryn is the sessional instructor of trombone at the University of Alberta and The King's University. She was recently appointed artistic director of the Ritchie Trombone Choir.
A keen advocate for active transportation, Kathryn can be seen commuting year-round by bicycle with her trombone on her back.
Musically, Kathryn's first love is opera. As a nerdy teenager, she spent her Saturday afternoons glued to the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts. Her favourite opera composers include Verdi, Wagner, and Janacek.
