Colleen Ferguson

Dr. Colleen Ferguson is an active performer and teacher of violin, viola, and orchestral conducting. She holds both a Bachelor’s (2002) and a Master’s (2004) degree in Music Education from The University of Texas at Austin. Subsequently, Dr. Ferguson earned both an MM (2012) and DMA (2015) in Violin Performance with a dual emphasis in Viola Performance and Orchestral Conducting from the University of Iowa. An enthusiastic teacher of students of all ages, Dr. Ferguson currently maintains a dynamic applied studio of string students at Texas A&M University Kingsville.   

Dr. Ferguson works with both string and symphony orchestras. She formerly served as Lecturer of violin and viola at Eastern Kentucky University, where she also directed the EKU String Orchestra, and served as Assistant Professor of Music and Symphony Orchestra director at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In 2019 Dr. Ferguson joined the faculty of Texas A&M University Kingsville as Assistant Professor of Strings and Orchestra where she is currently also the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Kingsville Symphony Orchestra (KSO). The KSO performs 5 concerts each season presenting audiences with programs of repertoire by a diverse range of composers from all periods and genres.

Dr. Ferguson regularly presents at national conferences across the United States including the annual American String Teachers Association National Conference, the National Association for Music Education Annual Conference, and the Biennial Suzuki Association of the Americas Conference, as well as appearing at state education conventions such as the Texas Music Educators Association and Florida Music Educators Association annual state conventions. Dr. Ferguson is regularly invited as a guest artist/lecturer/master teacher at various educational institutions throughout the USA including the University of Minnesota at Morris, Cornell College, The University of Texas at El Paso, the Loma Linda Academy and Florida Southern College and frequently presents master classes and clinics at local schools and school districts.

As an orchestral and chamber musician she has played professionally as a member of several orchestras including the El Paso Symphony (TX), Las Cruces Symphony (NM), Ottumwa Symphony (IA), Orchestra Iowa (IA), and Johnstown Symphony (PA), and currently plays with regional orchestras such as the Corpus Christi Symphony (TX) and Victoria Symphony (TX). Additionally, Dr. Ferguson has played in the orchestras of Mannheim Steamroller and the Transiberian Orchestra. She has been an active participant at several international music festivals throughout Europe including festivals in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Russia.  Formerly a member of the Litton Piano Trio at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (2018-2019), the Litton Trio presented a recital in April 2019 featuring a rare USA presentation of Charles Stanford’s Piano Trio No. 2 in G minor. Currently, Dr. Ferguson is the violinist (leader) of the newly formed Herbert Street Trio (2021) which presented a program of music featuring Charles V. Stanford and his pupils Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and John Ireland on tour in Texas, Pennsylvania and Durham (UK) in 2022.

Dr. Ferguson enjoys performing as a violinist and violist and has a particular interest in the music of British composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some of the venues of her solo violin recitals include St. Stephen’s Church in Dublin, Ireland (2016), and the Imperial College in London, England (2018). Together with Professor Jeremy Dibble of Durham University, UK, Dr. Ferguson (violin) and Professor Dibble (piano) presented recitals of British music for violin and piano at the Birmingham and Midlands Institute, Birmingham, UK (2019) and in Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucester, UK (2021) as part of the Stanford Society Annual Symposium. Dr. Ferguson has also edited several pieces of music and her critical performance edition of Charles V. Stanford’s Fourth String Quartet was used by the Dante Quartet on an album released in 2018 on the SOMM label.