This week’s landmark episode marks the return of Akiko, plus a pair of fellow stand partners for life: violists Kate Reddish and Eric Lea! We discuss the slings and arrows of a career in music, what you can and can’t get from music school, what it’s like to be part of a string-playing pair, and much more.

Kate Reddish is a Los Angeles-based freelance violist. She enjoys a busy and varied career subbing with nearly every major orchestra in the Southern California area, performing as a chamber musician, and teaching and coaching individuals and groups. Kate can be heard on hundreds of film scores, albums, and TV shows, and has appeared on television and on film.

Kate comes from a “numbers” family: her father was a tax attorney and CPA and her mother a bookkeeper; her sister followed that path to work as a bookkeeper and financial analyst. Meanwhile, Kate, who started playing the viola through the public school system in Riverside, was certain that a life in music was the only life she wanted.

Kate earned her BA and MM from UCLA (go Bruins!), studying with former Los Angeles Philharmonic principal violist Evan Wilson. Feeling nothing like a Master, she then trotted across town to USC (go Trojans!) to complete an artist’s diploma with eminent pedagogue Donald McInnes. Since finishing her formal schooling, Kate has also participated in intensive courses with Burton Kaplan, Rob Knopper, Noa Kageyama, and Nathan Cole.

In June of 2021, Kate started her own business, KMR Creative, consulting for online educators and coaches. She currently works closely with Nathan Cole to design and implement his many online offerings and to build the communities that rise up around those courses.

Kate enjoys yoga and dance, good food and wine, card games and crossword puzzles, and creating order out of chaos. She currently lives in South Pasadena with her husband, violist and composer Eric Lea, and their sweet kitty, Misha.

Eric Lea is a reasonably tall violist. He has a BM from the University of Arizona and an MM from USC (see above re: Trojans), both in viola performance. He has subbed with many symphonies and played and recorded with many bands. As the violist for the band Get Set Go, his playing could be barely discerned by millions under snappy dialogue in several episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, and he has toured Japan with songwriter/producer Mike Viola (coincidence?), with whom he and Kate recorded an album called Acousto de Perfecto. He fancies himself as something of a composer now, and his song cycles can be heard at ericlea.bandcamp.com.