Classical guitarist Catherine O’Kelly has been praised for her full sound and rich tone. Her programs often emphasize contemporary music, and through her doctoral research she has become a local expert on extended techniques. In 2025 Catherine earned her Doctor of Musical Arts in Guitar Performance from the Hartt School in West Hartford, CT, where she studied with Christopher Ladd. She earned a position with The Hartt School’s Honors Chamber Music Program, Performance 20/20, providing her a full scholarship for her doctoral studies. Catherine earned her Master of Music in Guitar Performance in 2013 at The Hartt School, and she earned her BA in music and philosophy from Vassar College in 2011.

 

In addition to her solo performances, Catherine has performed chamber music internationally and is a sought-after chamber musician. Since 2011 she has performed extensively alongside flautist Arielle Burke as the flute and guitar duo Tedesco Duo. Together they perform regularly for the BCGS Local Concert Series, The Carlisle Music Festival, and The Rivers School Conservatory’s Seminar on Contemporary Music. Their programs often feature contemporary music and explore themes that combine music with other art forms, such as dance and storytelling. In addition to contemporary music, their repertoire covers a wide range of eras and styles, from Renaissance songs to their own arrangements of popular tunes. Additionally, Catherine has collaborated with local groups such as Boston’s Cantata Singers, and she is a frequent guest lecturer and conductor, appearing with the Boston Classical Guitar Society, the URI Guitar and Mandolin Festival, and the Rhode Island Music Education Association All-State Guitar Ensembles.

 

Since 2023 Catherine has served as the Artistic Director for the Boston Classical Guitar Society. She rebranded the annual BCGS festival as the Spring Festival, which features a different theme each year. In addition, she serves as the Director of the Society’s Frank A. Wallace Memorial Fellowship, which awards a scholarship to a New England student each year in memory of the late composer Frank A. Wallace.

 

In 2022 Catherine founded The Rivers School Conservatory’s annual Guitar Weekend, a festival which brings in local and international guitarists for a weekend full of master classes, workshops, and performances. Past Guitar Weekends have included various interdisciplinary lectures and performances, and in 2026 Catherine added a guitar orchestra to the festival. Catherine discovered her passion for organizing guitar festivals in 2020, when on a whim she founded and directed the Online Guitar Festival. Wanting to create something for her students, colleagues, and herself to look forward to during the 2020 lockdown, she created a 4-day online festival providing performance opportunities, master classes, composition classes, and songwriting classes to guitarists of all ages and levels. The festival commissioned the ensemble piece Kaleidoscope: A Community from composer Michael Stubblefield, and festival participants performed a live premiere online.

 

In addition to her performance career and event directing, Catherine maintains strong teaching studios at The Rivers School Conservatory in Weston, MA, where she serves as the Chair of the Guitar Department; and at The Powers Music School in Belmont, MA, where she serves on the Faculty Advisory Committee. She also maintains a private teaching studio at her home in Worcester, MA. Her students have performed in master classes for Leo Brouwer, Xuefei Yang, João Luiz, Laura Snowden, Gaëlle Solal, and Sharon Isbin. She is a registered Suzuki teacher, and as a former Suzuki student herself, she is passionate about teaching young students through the Suzuki method.