Every Saturday, Katarina ’27 wakes up early enough to be on the road to Chicago at 5:30 a.m. for the two-and-a-half-hour drive she makes each week to study at one of the country’s most selective pre-college conservatories.
Katarina attends the Music Institute of Chicago Academy as a merit scholarship fellow, where she takes classes and is a part of their string quartet and orchestra. The Academy accepts only a small number of students and focuses on exceptionally skilled pianists and string players.
Katarina has been playing cello since she was about four years old. “There was a lot of music already in my house,” she said, “My mom let me choose what instrument I wanted to play. So we did a ton of observation and when I went and saw cello lessons I kind of knew that was what I wanted to play.”
Music runs in the family. Katarina is the daughter of a violin teacher, and her older sister, Ava, also plays the violin. “Ava has been one of my greatest role models ever since I first saw her practicing when I was little,” Katarina said. In fact, her first performance was playing Pop Goes the Weasel in a recital with her sister.
Since then, Katarina has worked with two local Madison cello teachers. Starting in the fall of 2025, she became one of the few high school students to study with Hans Jørgen Jensen, a cello professor at Northwestern University, another stop on her weekly Chicago trip.
Beyond Saturdays at the Academy, Katarina will sometimes drive to Chicago on Thursdays for studio classes or Fridays for chamber orchestra rehearsal. Occasionally, she’ll stay in Chicago until Sunday for morning orchestra rehearsals before driving back home for afternoon Madison Youth Choir practice.
Weekdays for Katarina are just as busy. In the morning, she practices for an hour and a half before school. “If I don’t have anything after school, I’ll practice from 4:30 until dinner, which is usually around 8:00,” Katarina said. “If I need to practice more, I practice more, and then I do homework, and then I go to bed, and then I do the same thing.”
After graduation, Katarina said she plans to major in music. In order to prepare for her college cello audition process in the fall, she has attended summer music festivals.
Last summer, Katarina attended a three-week, chamber-based festival in Vermont and then a month-long one in Canada. She also participated in a cello-specific festival at Michigan University for three years prior. This summer, she will train at the Meadowmount School of Music and the New England Conservatory 2026 Summer Chamber Music Young Artist Program.
Katarina has also competed in numerous competitions in the Madison, Chicago, and Milwaukee areas, as well as in Minnesota. Most recently, she was named first prize in the DePaul National Concerto Competition for Young Performers and was one of the 12 semi-finalists of the Stulberg International String Competition, with the next round of competitions being May 15. “Even though I do competitions, I’m not, like, a huge competitive person,” she said. “I do it so I have a performance opportunity.”
Katarina also competes with her string quartet the Tikaani Quartet. The group won first place in the Strings and Piano Division as well as the Barnett Chamber Competition Grand Award at the 14th annual A. N. & Pearl G. Barnett Chamber Competition. They were also finalists at the Saint Paul String Quartet Competition, where they were awarded Silver Medals and the Third Millennium Prize.
When talking about the Tikaani Quartet, Katarina said, “I especially enjoy chamber music because I can play what I love alongside close friends.”
