Catherine Beeson (she/they) is a performing violist and seasoned arts management professional with nearly 30 years of experience in artistic programming, fundraising, marketing, and operations. Beeson served as Executive Director of the Longmont Symphony Orchestra during the 2020-2022 performance seasons, seeing the organization through the COVID-19 pivot of online streaming to the return of public performances, and securing the organization on solid financial footing with a fully scheduled 2022-2023 season. As Director of Community & Education Programs for the Colorado Symphony from 2014 to 2018, Catherine designed and implemented Sensory Friendly programming, a pedagogical mentorship exchange program in Haiti, and a fully funded 400% increase in the Very Young Composers program while expanding the symphony’s presence in community venues, and increasing engagement in school day Youth Concerts. Beeson has been a Teaching Artist for the New York Philharmonic, Little Orchestra Society (NY), Friends of Chamber Music (Denver), Englewood Arts (CO), and the Colorado Symphony. As a performer, they have served as Assistant Principal Viola of the Colorado Symphony "since the late 1900s" and has been a regular performer with Santa Fe Pro Musica, Lenape Chamber Ensemble, and Loon Lake Live - a summer chamber music series she co-founded nearly 30 years ago. They especially love collaborating with composers to bring new pieces of music into the world.
Beeson is a graduate of University of Texas at Austin (BM), Manhattan School of Music (MM), Essentials of Orchestra Management program, and is honored to be one of 6 women and non-binary leaders in the nation selected for the inaugural cohort of the 2023-24 Anne Parsons Leadership Program.
Currently, they serve as Colorado Symphony Assistant Principal Viola with additional roles of Prelude Lecturer and Sensory Friendly/Adult/Student community event curator, adjunct faculty for the Arts and Culture Management program at University of Denver, and President and Artistic Director of the Loon Lake Live (NY) chamber music series.
Beeson has a music and creativity blog on their website catherinebeeson.com and is the host of The Pants Quandary podcast, featuring interviews with people who are involved in complex life/work situations that require flexible problem seeking and solving.
Super special skills and interests include: canning and pickling all sorts of tasty things, ponticello wizardry, badgering people into playing board games, back yard axe throwing when the neighbors’ sweet little grandchild isn’t visiting, downloading more podcasts and buying more books than can possibly be consumed in a lifetime, and attending the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo each January. If you ask nicely, she will share photographic evidence of her childhood livestock experience in 4-H.