Katherine Kilburn serves as Assistant Director of Orchestras at the Michigan State University College of Music. Kilburn was a recipient of the Thelma A. Robinson Conducting Award, has been Assistant Conductor of the National Repertory Orchestra, the El Paso Opera, the Hot Springs Music Festival, the Bowling Green State University Philharmonia, and the St. Louis Symphony Chorus, as well as Conductor of the Interlochen Arts Academy Wind Ensemble, Music Director and Conductor of the Greater New Haven Youth and Chamber Orchestras, Conductor of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Repertory Orchestra, Interim Director of the Vermont Youth Orchestra Association’s Philharmonia, and Guest Conductor of the Mansfield Symphony Orchestra, the Lawrence University Symphony Orchestra, the Green Bay Symphony, Ensemble X, Cleveland Opera Theater, the Lawrence University Opera Theater and the Baldwin Wallace Symphony Orchestra.

Ms. Kilburn assisted Sir Simon Rattle for performances of Peter Grimes at the Salzburg Easter Festival, and toured with world-renowned clarinetists David Shifrin and Alexander Fiterstein. A champion of new music, she has conducted numerous world and USA-premieres and has been involved in several premiere recordings including some on the Naxos American Classics/Milken Archive label. She has conducted in the Cabrillo Music Festival, the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music Festival, the Philadelphia International Music Festival, and the Sewanee Summer Music Festival. Ms. Kilburn was Interim Director of Orchestras at Kent State University where she also taught conducting and conducted the operas. Previous to that she was on faculty at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory where she was the Composition Program Performance Coordinator, guest conducted the Baldwin Wallace Symphony Orchestra, and was on the conducting faculty.

Ms. Kilburn was most recently Interim Director of Orchestras at Cornell University while also maintaining a regular schedule of guest conducting, adjudicating, and being a clinician at festivals around the US. Ms. Kilburn studied conducting at the Conservatoire Darius Milhaud in France and at the Royal Academy of Music in London. DMA Contemporary Music, Bowling Green State University, MM in Orchestral Conducting, University of Michigan, MM Choral Conducting, Indiana University, BA Music/French, Wellesley College.