Catherine Motuz enjoys an active career as a performer, teacher, and researcher. A founding member of I Ensemble Fedeli, she has played and recorded with ensembles including Concerto Palatino, the Amsterdam and Freiburg Baroque Orchestras, Bach Collegium Japan, Abendmusiken Basel, The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble, His Majesty’s Sagbutts & Cornetts, and ¡Sacabuche!. As a soloist, she has performed across Canada, at the Midsomer Barock Festival in Copenhagen, and in Austria and Switzerland with countertenor Alex Potter.
Catherine studied historical trombone with Charles Toet at the Schola Cantorum, Basel and with Dominique Lortie at McGill University. She has taught at McGill University, the Université de Montréal, the Royal Conservatoire of the Hague, the Royal Academy in London, and currently at the Schola Cantorum in Basel. She also teaches specialised workshops for early career musicians at LAMP in Nova Scotia, the Neuburger Sommerakademie für Alte Musik and at Alte Musik in Hof.
Catherine’s research activities focus on two related fields in Renaissance music: improvisation pedagogy and emotional expression in music. She has published on the role of memorisation in improvisation, and given workshops on improvised counterpoint at the Universities of Oxford, Birmingham, and Glasgow, the Royal Conservatory of the Hague, CESR (Tours), and at the Alamire Foundation (Leuven). In February 2021, she gave a Keynote presentation at The Hague Royal Early Music Conference: Edition 2021, Historical Music Pedagogy.