Katarina Kutnar was born in Zagreb, where she graduated in violin in 2017 under the guidance of Leonid Sorokow. She continued her studies at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar in the class of Professor Friedemann Eichhorn. In 2021, she completed her postgraduate studies at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg in the class of Professor Lavard Skou Larsen. During her time in Salzburg, she also studied Baroque violin with Professor Hiro Kurosaki.
She further refined her artistry at masterclasses with distinguished musicians including Leonid Sorokow, Volodja Balžalorsky, Marko Žepić, Violeta Smailović-Huart, Yova Yordanova, Evgenia Epstein, Friedemann Eichhorn, and Benjamin Schmid.
Katarina is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions, notably the Darko Lukić Award (2018), the Croatian Composers’ Society “Stjepan Šulek” Award, and the Rector’s Award for her performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major with the Zagreb Philharmonic in 2017. She also received the Ivo Vuljević Award for Best Young Musician (2016), First Prize at the Papandopulo Competition, and First Prize at the Third International Danube Instrumental Competition, along with multiple national first prizes from the Croatian Association of Music and Dance Pedagogues in both solo and chamber music categories.
As a soloist, she has performed with the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, the Croatian Radiotelevision Symphony Orchestra, the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, the Croatian Chamber Orchestra, the Hradec Králové Symphony Orchestra, the Jena Philharmonic, the Sondershausen Symphony Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra of the Slovenian Philharmonic.
She is a member of the international chamber ensembles Metamorphosen Berlin and Splendor Baroque Ensemble. Together with pianist Katarina Krpan, she recorded the album Daydream, which received two Porin Awards. Since 2022, she has served as Concertmaster of the Rijeka Symphony Orchestra.