Bio

Kate Lee

Born and raised in Webster, New York, a quaint suburb of Rochester, Kate began playing the violin at age nine, immediately immersing herself in both Classical and Americana styles. By the time she was twelve, her love for singing, songwriting and performing led her to an active career at local coffee houses. Shortly after forming the band "Kate Lee with No Strings Attached", her fan-base and touring schedule grew by leaps and bounds, leading to performances at such major East Coast music festivals and concert halls as the Gettysburg Festival, the Windgap Festival, the Oswego Music Hall, and the New York State Fiddler's Hall of Fame. As a young teenager, Kate continued her studies in classical music and became a member of the Hochstein Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.

Kate's biggest triumph to date was winning the "Search for a Star" talent contest in 2009 for her self-penned composition and performance of "On Your Way." As a result, she performed the song at the world-renowned Eastman Theatre with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Kate has also written songs for non-for-profit agencies such as The Missing and Abused Children Foundation ("In the Mirror") and The Granting Dreams Foundation ("When You Dream").

Among the other highlights of Kate's career have been her performances at Nashville's Bluebird Café, known as a venue for discovering and breaking such new talent as Garth Brooks and a hot-bed for the hottest songwriters in Nashville. Kate has been tapped as opening act for many national touring acts, such as Rhonda Vincent, Nothin' Fancy, Daily and Vincent, Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, and the Grascals.

Kate presently resides in Nashville, Tennessee and is a Sophomore at Belmont University, where she is studying classical violin under the direction of Elisabeth Small and commercial violin, fiddle, under the direction of Tammy Rogers. In addition to her music studies, she continues to write as well as perform in and around Music City as well as performing with No Strings Attached.

Kate has two CDs and a PBS television DVD to her credit.

Major Achievements:

• 2011 CMA Award Show - fiddle player for Rascal Flatts
• 2011 CMA Award Show - fiddle player for Glen Campbell Tribute behind Vince Gill, Brad Paisley, and Keith Urban.
• 2011 CMA Christmas Show - violin/fiddle player for Lauren Alaina, Rascal Flatts, Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Scott McCreery, Jennifer Nettles/Sugarland, Brad Paisley, and Keith Urban
• 2010 Received High School Grand Musician Award
• 2010 Concert Mistress Position for Orchestra
• 2010 Performed her song "Take Me With You," which she arranged for choir and piano accompaniment at graduation ceremony
• 2010 Graduates, ranked sixth out of her 365 high school student class with High Honors with Distinction
• 2009 Winner of Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra's "Search for a Star" competition with the performance of her song, "On Your Way"
• 2008 Grand Prize winner of the New York State Songwriting Contest for "Beige" and "On Your Way"
• 2008 Selected to perform on the PBS television series, "On Stage."
• 2008 Selected as Teen Correspondent for the Bluegrass Blog
• 2008 Scholarship award recipient for West Virginia's Augusta Heritage Fiddle Workshop
• 2007 recipient of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's "Future Women Leaders of America" Award
• 2007 National Publishing Award for Great New Authors for her song "Are We There Yet"

NO STRINGS ATTACHED BAND
BIOGRAPHY

CHUCK BODA
Bass - Chuck's musical roots began at home, inspired by his Father's country/western guitar playing & his Mother's ukulele playing. After several years of playing rock & roll, he discovered bluegrass & folk music. Chuck has played with several bluegrass bands such as North Forty, Borrowed Time and Cabin Fever.

BEN FORD
Guitar, banjo, mandolin, cittern -Ben has played in various bluegrass bands such as Borrowed Time and Cabin Fever, as well as act as guitar accompanist at the Kanack School of Music. He can never get enough practice and always strives for improvement for the band as a whole. Most recently Ben has contributed with his own original songwriting.

JOHN IRVINE
Banjo, mandolin - John is the latest "string" to join the group. He's noted around town as "a monster banjo and mandolin player". John has played in numerous bluegrass bands, such as, Cuttin' the Grass. You can bet that things are bound to get lively when John is on board!