Dr. Carolyn Broe

Dr. Carolyn Waters Broe, American violist, conductor and composer has been the featured soloist with orchestras in California and Arizona. She has made several CD recordings and performed with numerous celebrities.  Broe received her Bachelor of Music Performance from Chapman University, her Masters in Fine Arts in Music History from California State University, in Long Beach, and earned her Doctorate in Music from Arizona State University in 2001.  Her viola teachers include William Magers, Adriana Chirilov, and Louis Kievman.   She studied conducting with John Koshak and attended master classes with Leonard Bernstein, Herbert Blomstedt, and Seiji Ozawa.

Dr. Broe conducts the Four Seasons Orchestra of Scottsdale, which was nominated in two Grammy categories for 2000.  She conducted Four Seasons Orchestra on tour in Vienna, Austria for the Haydn Festival in 2009.  Broe was the founding conductor of the Paradise Valley Community College Orchestra for ten years as well as their Violin and Viola Instructor. She is the violist with the Four Seasons String Quartet and Sweetwater Strings. She has written two books including “J.S. Bach’s Treatment of the Viola” and “The String Literature of Louise L. Kerr.” Carolyn holds several awards including: The Dream Catcher Award of 1995; the PVCC Ten Year Service Award of 2003; and the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture “Artist Award” in 2005. She toured China as a violist with the American Festival Orchestra in 2012. Carolyn Broe is the Principal Violist with the Scottsdale Philharmonic Orchestra. She has been teaching private violin, viola and cello lessons for over twenty years.

Carolyn Waters Broe is the author of "Fifty Famous Composers For Kids Of All Ages". This is a collection of short biographies of twenty-five famous male composers and twenty-five famous female composers. It is designed as a resource book for music teachers, music students, parents and grandparents, and music lovers. Fifty Famous Composers won the Mom's Choice Gold Award for 2021 and was honored with two Finalist Awards in the 2022 International Book Awards in "History -General" and "Performing Arts", and the Book Excellence Award in 2023.