ABOUT CAROLINE
Caroline’s ongoing documentary series Origin Story (originstorymusic.org) is a multi-disciplinary resource in which film narrates a musical work’s journey from compositional roots to collaboratively interpreted performance. Each story (one piece, one composer) in the series includes in-depth exploratory work with the composer, a score annotated with composer/performer comments and markings, interviews, and a resulting performance. Origin Story aims to reveal the secrets behind the shared expression of the composer/performer partnership. Ms. Stinson will release Presences for solo cello and string quintet next year, as well as a full disc by the same name marking the complete recording of music for cello by John Harbison. A Duke Moment with the Ciompi Quartet was released on New Focus in 2025 and she has a discography of almost two dozen CDs created over twenty years of playing new chamber music in New York. She recorded multiple Bridge Records albums with the Lark Quartet from 2009-2018 (with pianists Gary Graffman and Jeremy Denk) featured and praised on the BBC, Gramophone Magazine, WQXR and the NY Times, and her Albany Records debut: Lines – European Lineages in American Music was released in 2011.
Caroline taught at The Juilliard School from 2008-2018 and earned degrees with distinction from Cleveland (CIM), the Hochschule für Musik, Köln, and the Artist Diploma from Juilliard. She is grateful to perform and teach in equal parts due to the brilliance of her own teachers: Tanya Prochazka, Alan Harris, Maria Keligel, and Joel Krosnick. Ms. Stinson serves as a Professor of the Practice and Director of Chamber Music at Duke University, where she received the Robert B. Cox Award for outstanding achievement in undergraduate teaching in 2024. With her husband Andrew Waggoner, Caroline is co-Artistic Director of the Weekend of Chamber Music, a summer festival in the Southern Catskills Mountains of NY.
Caroline performs on a cello by Thomas Dodd from 1800 and a Baroque cello by Wolfgang Schnabl from 2022.
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Sun08Nov2026
Duke Arts Presents: Ciompi String Quartet
2:00PMFollow Me... with baritone Robert Sims | honoring America’s 250th anniversary including spirituals arranged by Andrew Waggoner | Music of Barber, Ives, Burleigh, Price, and more...
Baldwin Auditorium, Duke University, Durham, NC
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Thu19Nov2026
Ciompi Quartet | Downtown
17:30String Quartets by Hugo Kauder | more...Trinity Avenue Presbyterian Church | 927 W Trinity Ave, Durham, NC
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Fri20Nov2026
Ciompi Quartet | Lunchtime Classics
12:00String Quartets by Hugo Kauder. The Ciompi continues its two concert series at the beautiful Goodson Chapel.
Goodson Chapel, Duke University, Durham, NC
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Sun10Jan2027
Small Space Series Lumos + INTEMPO
3:00PMwith Concertmaster Deborah Buck | String Quartets of Haydn and Beethoven
Saint Paul’s on the Green, Norwalk, CT
"Ms. Stinson’s excellent teaching has brought to light many important aspects of cello playing. As a great example, her teaching approach emphasizes musicality as integral to the development of technique, instead of as a component of music that comes after the technique."
–Cassandra Marcussen
TEACHING
Caroline gives masterclasses at Universities and Conservatories across Canada, the US, Mexico and Europe, and through her extensive chamber music work has been an Artist in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Iowa, SUNY Buffalo and Syracuse University. She regularly teaches for the NYU Summer Strings Program and at Columbia University.
In Durham, Caroline’s local cello studio is made up of Duke Undergraduates pursuing all majors including music, and local cellists of all ages. Her former high school students have gone on to attend Peabody Conservatory, Stanford University, Brown University and Harvard.
"Caroline Stinson inhabits the role of interpreter with true purpose.
The mission of rendering music expressive and exciting
is one she makes her own every time she plays."
–Anna Weesner, Composer
