Dr. Kathleen Carter Bell is an active educator and performer based in Amarillo, where she teaches at West Texas A&M University. Kathleen, who is Principal Oboist with the Amarillo Symphony and with the Lubbock Symphony, serves on the faculty for Indiana University’s Summer Music Clinic and has taught multiple summers at the Interlochen Center for the Arts.

An avid performer, Kathleen has given solo and chamber recitals across the US and abroad. In 2019, she was nominated as IU’s first Seoul National University Chamber Music Festival performer. Her trio, Elicio Winds, has received multiple commissioning and recording grants and their CD, Convergence: Music and Cultural Legacy, was released in 2023. A dedicated educator, Bell has given masterclasses across the country and launched “Double Talk Workshop” which provides double reed resources to teachers. Kathleen has published pedagogical articles in Ala Breve and the Tennessee Musician, and in spring 2024 she was named Review Editor for the International Alliance for Women in Music Journal. Kathleen also serves as Secretary for the International Double Reed Society’s Midsouth Chapter.

An advocate of new music, Kathleen has collaborated with multiple composers to commission and premiere new works. Bell’s DM document, From Dionysus to Die Walküre: The Ancient Greek Aulos as a Key to Wagner’s Writing for the Oboe and English Horn, was commended by IU as a “Dissertation of High Distinction.” Kathleen earned her DM, MM and PD degrees from IU’s Jacobs School of Music and her BM degree from Baldwin Wallace Conservatory. In 2012, Kathleen was awarded the Barbara and David H. Jacobs Fellowship, granted for “excellence and leadership in the world of music.”