Barbara Kavanaugh

Music is Barbara’s passion, and she is forever grateful for beginning cello lessons in the fourth grade in a Louisville public school. After a degree in cello performance from the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, Catholic University, Washington, D.C., her career has been performing and teaching. Her teachers include Robert Newkirk, Guillermo Helguera, Stephen Kates, and Josef Gingold (Meadowmount School of Music).

A free-lancer in the Washington, D.C. area for 30 years, she played in such venues as the Kennedy Center, Constitution Hall, Library of Congress, Wolftrap, and the National Theater. She has played concerts and taught in England, Hungary, Russia, and China. From 2010-2015, she traveled to China seven times for performances and teaching. Barbara served as Director of Chamber Music for the MasterWorks Festival from 1997-2016, coaching dozens of string quartets and various ensembles. Her desire to unite Christian faith and great music is found in her ministry, CaféJubalatte (sdgmm.org), a website to encourage and support Christian classical musicians.

Barbara moved to Wichita Falls to be near one of their sons after the sudden death of her husband, Patrick Kavanaugh, composer and conductor, in April, 2018. She has been privileged to perform with the WFSO since September, 2018. Barbara continues teaching privately, with the Youth Symphony Orchestra, and in WFISD for the Artist-in-Residence program sponsored by the WFSO.