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Mary Perkinson, violin

An award-winning artist, educator, and community leader, Dr. Perkinson began her violin studies at the age of 5 in the Philadelphia public schools. She performs with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Sound Ensemble Wisconsin, Madison Bach Musicians, the Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble, and she has toured internationally with the Broadway musical The King and I. An avid chamber musician, she has collaborated with members of the Pro Arte String Quartet and performed in faculty concerts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. She has also been a guest at the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival and performed on both modern and baroque instruments for Wisconsin Public Radio’s Live from the Chazen series.

An awardee of the Kathleen Church Grant for Excellence in Teaching Scholarship and the recipient of a four year String Pedagogy Teaching Assistantship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Perkinson is a passionate educator.   She has held teaching positions at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, the Sun Prairie Area School District, the Madison Metropolitan School District, the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Summer Music Clinic, Madison Music Makers, and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Chamber Music Retreat. In 2013 she served as an artist-in-residence for the Madison Symphony’s Arts Education Initiative. Dr. Perkinson is currently an Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, where she teaches violin, viola and string education.

In 2009 Dr. Perkinson founded Sound Health, an award-winning program that brings musicians from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music to perform in public spaces at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Hospital. The mission of Sound Health is to enrich the University of Wisconsin Hospital environment for patients, families, health care providers and staff through live music while providing music students with an opportunity for community service and professional performing experience. In addition to overseeing Sound Health, she served as Program Manager for Arts Outreach at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 2011 – 2014.

Dr. Perkinson graduated magna cum laude from Boston University; received a Graduate Performance Diploma from The Boston Conservatory; and completed the Masters of Music, K-12 Music Certification, and Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her primary teachers have included Felicia Moye, Vartan Manoogian, Magdalena Richter, and Bayla Keyes.