Kristin Mortenson is the Outreach Coordinator for the KSU Department of Music where she teaches Music Theory in the core curriculum for music majors, and Music Fundamentals for non-majors. She maintains a private violin and viola studio in Manhattan, and has been on the string faculty of Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan since 1986. Mortenson served as Articles Editor of the American String Teacher, the professional quarterly journal of the American String Teachers’ Association, from 2006-2008, and is currently the Assistant Editor of the International Trumpet Guild Journal.
Mortenson attended The University of Texas at Austin as a violin student of Leonard Posner, and received Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in violin from Louisiana State University where she studied with Sally O’Reilly. She is Associate Concertmaster of the Topeka Symphony, and was previously a first violinist in the Austin, Baton Rouge, Wichita, and Des Moines Symphonies. She has performed as soloist with the Blue Lake Festival Orchestra and the Flint Hills Chamber Orchestra, and served as Concertmaster of the Blue Lake Festival Orchestra for nearly twenty years.
Mortenson performs with the Tallgrass Trio, an ensemble composed of violin, clarinet, and bassoon, and is the first violinist of the Pernambuco String Quartet. Both ensembles are on the Kansas Arts on Tour roster through the Kansas Arts Commission. She has performed in concert with popular entertainers Ray Charles, Dionne Warwick, Bob Hope, Marvin Hamlisch, Red Skelton, Doc Severinsen, Rich Little, and Shirley Jones. Kristin Mortenson is a Life Member of Sigma Alpha Iota, is listed in Who’s Who in America, and was inducted into the Golden Key National Honor Society at the University of Texas. An erstwhile runner, Mortenson completed the 2003 Chicago Marathon as well as a number of shorter distance races.
