Katherine Potter : Associate Artist
Photo: Marnie Richardson
Katherine Potter is a freelance violist and composer with an interesting musical background, having completed Bachelors of Music in both jazz performance (WA Academy of Performing Arts) and classical performance (with first-class honours; University of Western Australia). Katherine was a 2006 Australian Chamber Orchestra Emerging Artist, perfomed as a regular casual violist with the WA Symphony Orchestra between 2007-2021, and on occasion plays as Principal Violist with the Perth Symphony Orchestra. Katherine has also performed with the acclaimed Sartory String Quartet since their inception in 2013.
Katherine has composed concert, film and dance music which has been performed in Australia, the US and Canada, and has a predilection for writing new soundtracks for 1920s silent films for the ensemble Viola Dana. Soundtracks for this ensemble have included those for Buster Keaton's The General and Sherlock, Jr, and together with Viola Dana's drummer Pete Guazzelli, a co-composed soundtrack for Murnau's Nosferatu. Katherine has been a recipient of two DLGSC Development Grants and an Australia Council (now Creative Australia) Artstart grant for activities combining both her performance and composition practices.
Katherine was commissioned by the ABC to compose a suite of eight nocturnes for viola and piano, and to record these with Adam Pinto in early 2024. Eight Nocturnes was released digitally on the ABC Classic label in September 2024. One nocturne, entitled Here We Are, was chosen for the Seventh Grade AMEB Viola Manual List. Other recent commissioned projects include Respired for solo piano, commissioned by Adam Pinto; Just Maybe for marimba-vibraphone solo, commissioned by Paul Tanner; arranging Rachael Dease's Hymns for End Times alongside Alice Humphries and Mia Brine for the 2021 Perth Festival, performed by the WA Symphony Orchestra and Voyces; Reaching Out for String Quartet, commissioned by the Western Australian Young Artists Chamber Music Program; and Space Junk for guitar and vibraphone, commissioned by Jonathan Fitzgerald and Paul Tanner.
Katherine Potter — current to May 2025
Selected Commissions
| Work | Commission Details | |
|---|---|---|
|
Eight Nocturnes : for piano and viola (2023) | Commissioned by ABC Classic as part of the ABC Classic and ABC Jazz Composer Commissioning Fund. |