Hailed for her virtuosity and vibrant musical spirit, bassoonist Eleni Katz has established herself as a prominent soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player. Eleni is a winner of the 2022 Concert Artist Guild Competition and has performed with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Jupiter Chamber Players, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Sarasota Orchestra, and as a member of the New World Symphony.  Additional recent highlights include her Carnegie Hall debut through Young Performers Career Advancement (YPCA) and a 2022 fellowship with the Phoenix Chamber Music Society.

As a classically trained singer, Katz has always believed that the bassoon should emulate the organic nature of the human voice and her approach to playing the bassoon has been described as “uncannily human” (The Royal Gazette).  In 2021, she commissioned and premiered “Sea Glass Partita for Singing Bassoonist” with composer Lila Meretzky. Drawing its lyrics from a poem written by Eleni, the piece intersperses bassoon performance with vocals and visual projections. Since the performance of this work, Eleni has commissioned several other works for bassoon with the focus of creating multidisciplinary experiences. 

Eleni’s recent performance appearances include the Artosphere Festival Orchestra, Dame Myra Hess Series, The Bermuda Festival, Music Academy of the West, Lake George Music Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, National Repertory Orchestra, Orchestra of the Americas, and the Norfolk and Madeline Island chamber music festivals. She was also a semifinalist in the Meg Quigley Vivaldi competition in 2019.

From Iowa City, Eleni received her B.M. at University of Wisconsin’s Mead Witter School of Music under Marc Vallon. She earned her master’s degree at the Yale School of Music, studying with Frank Morelli. During her time at Yale, she was the winner of the Yale Philharmonia’s 2019 Concerto Competition, a finalist for the Eastern Connecticut Symphony’s Instrumental Competition, and recipient of the Thomas Daniel Nyfenger Prize for demonstrating “the highest standard of excellence in woodwind playing.”