Cate Howard has studied and played the violin since the age of six. She began her undergraduate studies at New School of Music, Philadelphia, and completed her degree program at the University of Witwatersrand School of Music, Johannesburg, South Africa. Cate continued independent conservatory level studies with Jascha Brodsky in Philadelphia and Igor Ozim in Köln Germany. For 17 years she directed the String Arts School of Concord near Boston, while also teaching at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, Boston. She has had many years of teacher training through the Suzuki Association of the Americas, her primary teachers include Linda Fiore, Teri Einfelt, Linda Case and Ronda Cole. As a professional violinist and violist, Cate has performed and held teaching positions in the US, South Africa, Tanzania, Germany, Scotland.
In 2007, Cate received the Daniel Orjiako Foundation Award in recognition of her contributions as a performer and organizer of numerous benefit concerts for the building of clinics, improved education opportunities, and the prevention of AIDS in southern Africa. In 2008, she published her first book How the Violin Plays the Violinist; and in 2010, Cate was awarded the Massachusetts American String Teachers Association “studio teacher of the year”.
Cate is currently a violin lecturer at the Junior Conservatoire RCS in Glasgow, Specialist External Assessor for Strings department Royal Conservatoire of Scotland; teaching also at Wellington School in Ayr and in Castle Douglas, Scotland where she is the new director of the Galloway Violin Studio.