Catharina Meints

Catharina Meints grew up in the Chicago area within a musical family. Developing a love for orchestral playing early on, she attended the National Music Camp at Interlochen for five summers. She went on to attend the Eastman School of Music on a full scholarship, performing with the Rochester Philharmonic and the Grant Park Orchestra in Chicago during her studies. After graduation, she joined the Chamber Symphony of Philadelphia, where she met her future husband, oboist James Caldwell, who introduced her to the viola da gamba.

Following the dissolution of the Chamber Symphony, Meints joined the National Symphony in Washington, D.C., alongside her husband. During this time, she continued to pursue her studies of the viola da gamba. In 1971, the couple moved to Ohio, where Caldwell joined the Oberlin Conservatory faculty and Meints won an audition to become a cellist with the Cleveland Orchestra, a position she held for 35 years.

Meints became a central figure in the Cleveland and Oberlin baroque music scenes. She performed with the Oberlin Baroque Ensemble, the Cleveland Baroque Soloists, and the Oberlin Consort of Viols, playing instruments such as the cello, bass viola da gamba, treble viola da gamba, baroque cello, and pardessus de viole. In 1972, she and Caldwell co-founded the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute (BPI), a significant summer workshop for baroque music education where she has influenced the lives of students of all ages.

While raising her son and continuing her orchestral career, she began teaching at the Oberlin Conservatory in 1976. As Associate Professor of viola da gamba, baroque cello, and cello, she has cultivated a unique teaching environment for both undergraduate and graduate students. For over 35 years, she has led intensive Winter Term beginning viol classes, often inspiring modern cello majors to pursue secondary lessons, minors, or even Master's degrees in early music. Consequently, a significant number of professional early music players and teachers in the United States and Europe began their training under her guidance at Oberlin.

Her pedagogical approach bridges the gap between modern and historical performance. Drawing on her long tenure with the Cleveland Orchestra, she teaches modern cello majors, coaches chamber music, and prepares students for professional auditions through Orchestral Repertoire classes and sectionals. Simultaneously, she emphasizes viol consort music to train musicians' ears in polyphony and counterpoint, often coaching baroque ensembles and preparing the student baroque orchestra. A typical teaching day might encompass a diverse repertoire ranging from Simpson and Castello to Popper and Brahms.

Following her retirement from the Cleveland Orchestra in 2006 and the passing of her husband, her work at Oberlin became the primary focus of her professional life. She continues to perform on faculty recitals and with groups like Apollo's Fire. Meints maintains a national presence as a regular faculty member at the Viola da Gamba Society of America's annual Conclave and through master classes across the country. Her contributions to the field also include the 2012 publication "The Caldwell Collection of Viols" and an iBook titled "The Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute-The Wenzinger Years".

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