Catherine Birke, an energetic and passionate conductor, violinist, and educator, is the music director of the Music Advancement Program at Juilliard, the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra, and Nassau Symphony Orchestra.  She is also director of orchestras at Herricks High School, in New Hyde Park, New York, where her four thriving orchestras have consistently won numerous awards at local and national levels.

For six years, Birke served as the director of strings at the New York State Summer School of the Arts (NYSSSA) School of Orchestral Studies, an intensive residential summer program for advanced high school musicians co-sponsored by the Philadelphia Orchestra.  She is also an adjunct faculty member at Hofstra University in the music education department, teaching undergraduate- and graduate-level string methods.

Birke is a sought-after guest conductor for collegiate orchestras and New York all-state festivals.  She maintains active membership in numerous professional organizations and has served as an orchestra chairperson and a vice president on the executive board of the Nassau County Music Educators’ Association.  When not teaching, she can be found playing violin with numerous orchestras and opera companies, most notably as concertmaster of both the South Shore Symphony and Long Island Lyric Opera.

Birke holds a bachelor of music degree from Temple University (where she studied with co-concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra William DePasquale), a master of music degree from the University of the Arts, and an advanced certificate in Music Theory from Berklee College of Music.  She is a trained vocalist and opera lover, an enthusiastic advocate for new music, and is deeply committed to diversity in all of her programming.  She strives to make every performance exciting for orchestra and audience alike, and her favorite thing in the world is being on the podium in front of a group of young musicians.