In 1990, Kate won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, where she formed the celebrated Leopold String Trio. They recorded for Hyperion Records and soon became BBC New Generation Artists and ECHO ‘Rising Stars’, touring worldwide. Kate used their prestigious Borletti‐Buitoni Trust Award to curate a series at Wigmore Hall and Turner Sims and the trio went on to win the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Chamber Music. The trio, with the final line-up of Isabelle van Keulen and Lawrence Power, gave its last performance in 2011 at the Barbican with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, performing Tippett’s Triple Concerto live on Radio 3.
From 2012-2022 she turned her focus to the London Bridge Trio, most recently recording piano trios by Schumann and Mendelssohn in their ‘Leipzig Circle’ series, receiving high critical acclaim. Recent concert highlights for Kate include Wigmore Hall, a London Cello Society concert at Duke’s Hall, Royal Academy of Music, and performing an unaccompanied cello piece by Isabel Mundry as part of a Chamber Orchestra of Europe concert at the Würzburg Mozartfest, Germany. Last season Kate made return visits to the Festival de los Siete Lagos, Argentina and chamber music festivals in Penarth and Corbridge. She also appeared at South Downs Summer Music, Alfriston, and the Ironstone Chamber Music Festival, north Oxfordshire, which Kate directs with her sister, Lucy.
She has been a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe since 2000, which continues to tour extensively across Europe and beyond, regularly working with Simon Rattle, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Antonio Pappano at concerts such as Salzburg Mozartwoche, Baden-Baden Sommerfestspiele and regular appearances at the Philharmonie, Berlin.
Kate is in much demand as a guest principal cellist, often invited by London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Opera North, English Chamber Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia and, on gut strings, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
She loves teaching and presently gives classes and adjudicates at the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall. She has coached on many summer courses, including Cadenza (London) and Città Alta Chamber Music Week (Bergamo) and regularly coaching the cellos of National Youth Orchestra of Wales and Ulster Youth Orchestra.