Caitlin McSherry, violin

Caitlin McSherry is an enthusiastic performer and teacher of the violin’s many styles. Having grown up as a fiddle player in Idaho, she is now a professional violinist in the San Francisco Bay Area. Caitlin is Principal Second Violinist for the Fresno Philharmonic, and a rotating Concertmaster for the conductorless chamber orchestra, One Found Sound. She also regularly plays with the Marin, Stockton, and Monterey Symphonies, Opera San Jose, and many other ensembles in California.

Caitlin earned her Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she studied with Camilla Wicks and Axel Strauss. At the University of Maryland, College Park she received her Masters of Music in Violin Performance while studying with David Salness.

Chamber Music has always been a keen interest for Caitlin. She had the privilege to train with members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Tokyo, Axelrod, and Concord String Quartets, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. For several summers Caitlin performed around Italy with the Zephyr International Chamber Music Festival.

While living in Maryland Caitlin performed in a series of Baroque lecture concerts at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Historical music has been a longtime appreciation of Caitlin’s, leading her to study Baroque music with Marc Destrube, Kenneth Slowik, Marilyn McDonald, Anthony Martin, Corey Jamason and others. While at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music she was honored as their baroque performer of the year. She also attended Oberlin’s Baroque Performance Institute and the Twin Cities Early Music Festival.

For seven seasons Caitlin played many of opera’s most iconic works with the Sarasota Opera Orchestra in Florida. There she was privileged to be a part of the final years of the world’s first complete Verdi cycle. She also played with Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theater for five enjoyable summer seasons alongside her cellist husband, Drew Ford.

While still in college Caitlin began freelancing with many of the symphonies around the San Francisco Bay Area, fondly referred to as the “Freeway Philharmonic.” Proud to have won auditions for permanent positions in several of these fine ensembles, she thoroughly enjoys making music with her wonderful colleagues around the state of California.

Each new season brings varied chamber music collaborations for Caitlin that include a collection of both classic and contemporary repertoire. She is a regular chamber music performer with San Francisco’s One Found Sound and both the Bitwise and Proxima concert series in Fresno. Some of her other recent chamber music collaborations have been with members of the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, the Fry Street String Quartet, and with the Empyrean Ensemble, the California Sound Collective, Musica Marin, and the Utah Festival Players.

Along with her performing, Caitlin maintains teaching studios in both San Francisco and Vallejo. She has given private violin and fiddle lessons to students of all ages for over twenty years around the United States. Caitlin also coaches ensembles ranging from small chamber music groups to full orchestras. She loves working with her students and helping them cultivate the joy of creating music.