Kathleen Kono has been a music educator since 1996 both in private violin and violas lessons and group orchestra classes.  Kathleen grew up in Atlanta Georgia and attended Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music where she received her Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance and then attended The University of Texas at Austin graduating with a Masters of Music degree in Violin Performance and Pedagogy. She has been the Director of Orchestras at three different schools in Texas and was named Teacher of the Year twice. She also served as a conductor in the Corpus Christi and Austin Youth Orchestra organizations.

In 2011, Kathleen and her family relocated to Burlington Vermont. Kathleen now conducts the orchestras at Burlington High School and teaches strings to the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders at the Integrated Arts Academy.  She also conducts the Prelude! and Presto Orchestras at the Vermont Youth Orchestra Association, teaches String Techniques at the University of Vermont and holds a private violin and viola studio with 20 students.  She has been the invited guest conductor at many of the District Orchestra Festivals in Vermont and has had many of her private students accepted into not only the Vermont All-State Music Festival but the New England Music Festival as well. Her students have served in principal and concertmaster positions in many of the orchestras they participate in and have  also been selected as the New England String Solo Performance and the Vermont All-State String Scholarship Performance in the past.

She is honored to work alongside the faculty at the University of Vermont’s School of Arts Music Program as the instructor in violin lessons and string techniques.