Kathleen Collisson has been a cellist with the Milwaukee Symphony since 1977, and is very happy to be returning to Summerkeys for a third year. She’s also performed with Chicago Lyric Opera, the Grant Park Symphony, Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, and many other groups. She received her Bachelor of Music with honors as a scholarship student of Karl Fruh in Chicago, and also studied with Frank Miller and Raya Garbousova while maintaining an active freelance career in Chicago and Milwaukee. Since 2004 she’s also been studying and performing on Baroque cello. As a very active member of the MSO’s award-winning Arts in Community Education program, Kathleen performs with a cello quartet and a baroque trio in school classrooms throughout the area, and also leads workshops combining poetry and music to sixth-graders. She also developed and taught a course combining music and science for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s College for Kids program. Since earning an MFA in creative writing in 1997, she has taught classes and workshops in creativity process and fiction writing, and has given lectures on authors and composers. She’s been an enthusiastic teacher since the age of sixteen, and has a special love for coaching adult cello students through the roadblocks unique to being an older musician.