Associate Director of Chamber Music
Kristen Krauss is a violinist, teacher and the founder and director of Berkshire Summer Music, a two-week resident chamber music camp in Massachusetts that is currently in its eighth year. Kristen is on faculty at The School for Strings and teaches many private students in New York City where she uniquely combines her dedication to music education and her personal experience as a mother to four musical children.
Kristen has performed solo, chamber, and orchestral works on the violin and viola at the Aspen and Waterloo Music Festivals and at Columbia University. She has been on the violin faculty of the JCC, Thurnauer School of Music, and Elisabeth Morrow School as well as the Accademia Perosi in Biella, Italy. She has coached chamber music for the New York Youth Symphony and managed the program’s chamber division. Additionally, she has held administrative positions at the Interlochen Arts Camp, Waterloo Music Festival, and Music in the Mountains where she also coached chamber music.
Kristen received her BA from Barnard College and studied the violin and viola with Patinka Kopek as part of the Manhattan School of Music/Barnard joint program. She began teaching at the School for Strings in New York City in 1994 after completing its Teacher Training Program under the tutelage of School for Strings founder Louise Beherend. Additional teacher training with Ronda Cole and Linda Fiore.