Collegium Musicum N J

Katrina Kormanski

Katrina has performed with her parents for many years (Clarinet, Cello, and Piano). Her father, Dr. George M. Jones, Professor of Music at Rutgers University for 48 years, has been one of her greatest musical influences.

Presently Katrina is principal cellist of the Capital Philharmonic of New Jersey , a chair she has held since 1987, Boheme Opera, Newtown Chamber, and Southeastern Pennsylvania Symphony.

She holds a Master of Music Degree. Katrina pursued her musical studies at the Eastman School of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, University of Massachusetts, Mason Gross School of the Arts (Rutgers), and the Nice Conservatory in Nice, France. Her teachers have included Winifred Mayes and Alan Harris.  She has performed in master classes of Janos Starker, Aldo Parisot, Hans Jorgen Jensen, Stephen Geber, Bernard Michelin (Paris Conservatory) and Michele Marchesini (Paris Opera).

As a soloist she has appeared with the Collegium of Musicum of Princeton, the Rutgers University Orchestra, the National Repertory Orchestra (Colorado), the Greater Trenton Symphony Orchestra and the Hunterdon Symphony.  Her solo appearance with the Greater Trenton Symphony, in which she performed the Boccherini Cello Concerto in B flat, was quoted by the Trenton Times as being “negotiated with flair and easy virtuosity”.  Notably she performed as soloist with the Hunterdon Symphony in Austria for Mozart’s 250th Anniversary in 2006 and on a “White Nights” orchestral tour in St. Petersburg Russia in 2008 playing Dvorak’s Silent Woods. She also very much enjoys continuo playing which she did many years at Trinity Episcopal Church of Princeton where she was also a choir member.

She has performed in Severance Hall on the Cleveland Orchestra Series, on many programs of the Concert Series of Rutgers University, with the original Beaux Arts Trio, the Cleveland Duo, the Des Moines Metro Opera, the Billy Taylor Trio, and with the June Opera Festival of New Jersey. With the Newtown Chamber Orchestra she participated in the Santander Festival touring northern Spain.  She has toured throughout Europe with various European festivals.

In the states she has toured with Anne Murray, Theodore Bikel, Harry Connick Jr., Mannheim Steamrollers, and Andre Bocelli among others.

Katrina’s love of travel has taken her all over the world and given her opportunity to pursue her great interest in languages and culture.  Using this talent she has been able to execute the rare feat of simultaneously singing in Italian and playing the solo cello part to Mozart’s aria’ “Batti Batti” from his opera Don Giovanni. Other interests include hiking, photography and baking and cuisine.  Her gourmet specialties include spanakopita and tiramisu.

Katrina plays an 1887 Karl August Neumarker cello. She resides in Philadelphia with her husband John, also a professional musician.