Kate Mariana Brown has been playing piano since age four. She studied for twelve years with Jean Krinke in Saint Anthony Park, Minnesota, frequently performing in recitals and competitions such as the Minnesota Music Teachers Association State Contest, which awarded her first place in the Junior Young Artist and Senior Young Artist piano and pipe organ competitions. She has performed in London, accompanying Mark Billingsley, French horn, in his master's degree recital at the Royal College of Music, participated in a masterclass with Nelita True of Eastman School of Music, studied with Kathryn Brown of Cleveland Institute of Music, performed as guest pianist twice with the Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra, and performed twice with three-time Grammy winner Jamecia Bennett.

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While attending the University of Minnesota to receive a Bachelor of Music in piano performance, Kate studied with Juilliard-trained pianist Dr. Paul Shaw and was the winner of the 2009 Marvin O. Mechelke II Piano Scholarship Competition. She enjoyed collaborating in piano duos including performances of Debussy's Petite Suite, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, and Milhaud's Scaramouche, being an alto in the University of Minnesota Gospel Choir under the direction of Sanford Moore, playing accordion in the University of Minnesota Tango Ensemble, and performing in the Steel Drum Ensemble. She also continued studying pipe organ with Jean Krinke, Dr. Dean Billmeyer and Dr. Allan Mahnke, and worked as organist at Saint Anthony Park United Methodist Church for four years. After graduating, Kate was the recipient of the Mark Mothersbaugh Scholarship and earned a Specialist Certificate in Orchestration for Film and TV from Berklee College of Music, studying with Steve MacLean, Pinar Toprak, and Ben Newhouse.

Her love for collaboration began at a young age with piano duets and continued with piano trios, chamber music, and accompanying countless soloists and instrumentalists for auditions, concerts, and recordings. Some highlights include co-winning the 2005 Northwestern College Piano Ensemble Festival with Eri Isomura, and performing Mendelssohn's Piano Trio no. 1 in D minor, op. 49 with The Willow Trio coached by Minnesota Orchestra cellist Sachiya Isomura. Kate has taught over sixty students throughout the years, and has accompanied spring and winter choir concerts at Minnehaha Academy's Lower and Middle School for a decade. She also enjoys collaborating with her friends in Pavia Wind Quintet and has performed regularly with them throughout the Twin Cities including Poulenc Sextet for Piano and Wind Quintet op. 100, Strauss Till Eulenspiegel op. 28, Reinecke Trio op. 274 for Clarinet, Horn and Piano, Maslanka Blue Mountain Meadow, Françaix L’Heure du Berger, Larsen Blue Windows After Marc Chagall, Higdon Summer Shimmers, Rimsky-Korsakov Quintet in B-flat Major, Ewazen Cascadian Concerto, Bunch Summer Hours, Holst The Planets, and Thuille Sextet for Piano and Woodwind Quintet op. 6.

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She first fell in love with performing for musical theatre in 2010 when she played piano and sound effects for eighty performances of the University of Minnesota theater department's Triumph of Love on the Centennial Showboat at Harriet Island in Saint Paul. Four years later she was composer, pianist, and music director for the musical comedy Austen-tacious! at the Minnesota Fringe Festival. Since then, she has been fortunate to find a home within the Twin Cities theatre community where she has had the privilege to work with Peter Rothstein, Michael Matthew Ferrell, David Holcenberg, Michael Heitzman, and Sarna Lapine. Since 2016 she has performed in the orchestra pit at Artistry Theater at Bloomington Center for the Arts in seventeen productions: The Drowsy Chaperone, The Baker's Wife, Little Shop of Horrors, The Secret Garden, The Music Man, Follies, Legally Blonde, Mary Poppins, She Loves Me, Victor / Victoria, Footloose, A New Brain, The Bridges of Madison County, Songs for a New World, Little Women, Shrek, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. She has worked for the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts as rehearsal pianist and keyboard sub for Beauty and the Beast, Chanhassen Dinner Theatres as keyboard and conductor sub for The Prom, Jersey Boys, and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, and the Guthrie Theater as Assistant Music Director for Into the Woods. Most recently she was thrilled to sub in the pit for the national tour of Hairspray, and next up she's music directing Disney's Newsies at Artistry Theater.

Kate is a member of the Twin Cities Musicians Union, American Federation of Musicians.

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