Katharine O'Connell was named the Ohio Music Teachers’ Association Composer of year for 2009. She studied composition at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University (B.M.) before earning a Doctorate in Music Composition at the University of Kentucky. Her work has been recorded by Trio Ariana on the Eroica label and her orchestral work, Turner Seascapes, was read and recorded by the Women’s Philharmonic in San Francisco, as part of their national search for new composers. Her works include commissions by the New Haven Oratorio Chorale, the Prism Chamber Music Society, and the Black Note Ensemble at the University of Houston. International activities include attendance at the Ennis Opera workshop in Ireland, where her opera excerpt from Waiting for Godot was performed, and a performance at the London Congress of the International Alliance for Women in Music She lives in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.