Mike Catelinet, First Violin
Columbia Orchestra member since: 2004
What do you do for a living? I work as an engineer for a naval architecture firm in suburban Baltimore.
Where else do you play? Besides Columbia, I regularly play with the Howard County Ballet Orchestra and the Greenspring Valley Orchestra. I have also played in the Baltimore Philharmonia Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Mt. Vernon Place, the UMBC Symphony, and the Johnstown (PA) Symphony Orchestra.
Who else in your family is a musicians? My older brother plays viola in the New York Repertory Orchestra and my mother is the second clarinetist of the Johnstown (PA) Symphony Orchestra. My grandfather, Philip, was a composer and the dedicatee of Ralph Vaughan-Williams' Tuba Concerto.
Where did you go to school and what did you study? Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University
With whom have you studied? I currently study with Melina Gajger of the Peabody Conservatory. My previous teacher was Stanley Chepaitis of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Favorite Columbia Orchestra concert and why? Sharing the stage with Mark O'Connor was unforgettable, because of the virtuosity and energy he brings to every performance.
What are your favorite composers or pieces? Large-scale pieces like the tone poems of Richard Strauss and the symphonies of Nielsen and Shostakovich.
What’s on your iPod? A lot of violin music, of course (who knew that Mendelssohn wrote *two* violin concerti?). Ever since reading "The Rest is Noise", I've been listening to more 20th-Century music, including composers like John Adams, Steve Reich, and Michael Torke. I also have a lot of progressive/"symphonic" rock left over from my college days.
Last book you read? _Physics of the Impossible_, by Michio Kaku
Favorite TV shows? "Good Eats", "Mythbusters", and "Ace of Cakes"
Other surprising facts about you? I earned a private pilot's license (airplane, single-engine, land) in 2002. I have also been teaching myself computer science and have contributed to several online open-source software projects.
