About Katie A. Berglof

Katie Berglof is an arts nonprofit leader and musician safety, health, & labor rights advocate. Her work is distinguished by her advocacy for accountability, musician health and injury awareness, and fair labor rights within the classical music industry.

As a lifelong musician, her background spans music performance as a French horn player, music education in both private and public schools, arts administration, union representation, human resources, DEI, advocacy and community outreach & engagement. 
 

She is the chief editor and founder of the orchestra journal Harpsichords & Hot Sauce, where she amplifies urgent conversations around orchestral reform, musician health, ethics, and labor rights.

Katie is a founding member of the Board of Directors of Unbound Symphony, based in Seattle, Washington. She serves as the organization's Vice President & Secretary, and former Personnel Chair. In addition, she helped develop the National Survey on Orchestral Musician Safety & Culture in partnership with the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center, contributing to research aimed at fostering safer and more inclusive environments within the orchestral community.

She is additionally the founder of Courage Over Silence (Read: The Violin Channel's Article on Courage Over Silence) a defense fund that supports classical musicians facing harassment, retaliation, and systemic abuse.
 

Katie holds a bachelor’s degree in music performance (French horn) from the University of Northern Iowa, with additional studies on horn at the University of Northern Colorado. She performed almost exclusively in principal horn roles and dreamed of becoming a horn professor and editor for the IHS Horn Call someday. Her passion for pedagogy led her to author A Short Guide to Horn Transposition.

However, her dreams were unable to become a reality. In her last two years of undergraduate studies, she began experiencing symptoms of Focal Task-Specific Embouchure Dystonia, and was diagnosed by a neurologist after she graduated. It took two years of near-total solitude before she found the strength to re-engage with music.
 

Determined to continue contributing to the field, she pursued a graduate degree in K–12 Instrumental Music Education at the University of Colorado Boulder, leading to a teaching career. She has experience as a 4th-5th grade band director and early childhood music educator at Garden Place Elementary, including high brass instructor for Castle Rock's Douglas County High School, and as a private instructor. 

While based in Denver, she also worked as an arts administrator for music nonprofits - first as a Program Assistant for El Sistema Colorado, then as an Education Assistant in Community Outreach & Engagement for the University of Denver’s Newman Performing Arts Center.
 

During this time, she became a widely recognized advocate for focal dystonia awareness, sharing her recovery publicly through her blog Living with Embouchure Dystonia. Although she initially expected few readers, her honest documentation attracted musicians worldwide seeking support and connection. Her blog transitioned into a YouTube channel where she shares videos on rehabilitation, brass injuries, and her ongoing progress.

Katie earned the Performing Arts Medicine Association and Sports Medicine Health Association’s Essentials in Performance Art Health Medicine certificate for performing arts health practitioners. She has presented webinars, lectures, and served on organization's panels discussing musician’s dystonia. Her work has been referenced in dissertations, research projects, and health initiatives for performing artists. 
 

In 2020, during the pandemic, Katie launched Musicians Dystonia & Injury Live Talk, a livestream interview series featuring 24 musicians and performing arts medicine practitioners. This led her to wanting to start her own nonprofit.
 

Katie received a scholarship and enrolled in Seattle University's MFA Nonprofit Arts Leadership proram, during which time she was assigned to intern in Development Operations at the Seattle Symphony and as Executive Assistant for Byron Schenkman & Friends Chamber Music (now called Sound Salon).
 

After completing her internship with the Seattle Symphony, she was offered a staff position as Office Administrator in People & Culture (HR). There, she also served as Acting Executive Assistant to the President & CEO, COVID Coordinator, helped proctored auditions, and co-coordinated the staff events committee. She represented the Symphony on the Northwest Orchestra's Gathering Steering Committee.
 

Katie holds professional HR credentials, training, and is certified in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) through the Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI). Following her work at the Seattle Symphony, she joined another HR team at Altasciences, a pharmaceutical research company. However, her passion for the performing arts and supporting fairer workplace rights and protection led her to working for the labor union International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).
 

Katie launched Harpsichords & Hot Sauce Orchestra Journal in August 2024, a publication exploring the inner workings of orchestral culture through short stories, essays, and memoirs—with a signature spicy twist. The journal focuses on four central pillars: Safety & Ethics, Health & Wellbeing, Professional Development, and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI). Whether addressing musician rights, injury prevention, or labor law basics, Katie's goal is to make institutions less toxic and more humane and equipping musicians with knowledge and support.
 

In December 2024, she founded Courage Over Silence Defense Fund, a campaign and defense fund supporting survivors, whistleblowers, and advocates in classical music. The fund raised over $5K within its first week and has since surpassed $21K.

 

Katie is a founding member of the Board of Directors of Unbound Symphony. Unbound Symphony was established in March 2026 on International Women's Day, which is a mission-driven organization based in Seattle that curates supportive musical communities for women and gender-marginalized artists while enriching the public through inclusive performances, learning opportunities, and community partnerships in the Puget Sound region. 
 

Katie was a finalist for the Assistant General Manager role at the International Women’s Brass Conference (IWBC) in 2023 and for the Assistant to the Executive Director position at the International Horn Society (IHS) in 2024. She was also nominated for the IHS Advisory Council in 2023.
 

Her leadership experience includes serving as an Advisory Council Member for Arts Education Partnership, which is a collaboration between the National Endowment for the Arts, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Education Commission of the States.

Katie has also served on the Young Professionals Committee for the Performing Arts Medicine Association (PAMA). She has additionally been a committee member on the Seattle Executive Assistant Roundtable, Seattle Performing Arts DEI Roundtable, and served as co-coordinator of the Seattle Symphony All Stars Committee (Staff Events Committee). 

She currently holds memberships with the Performing Arts Medicine Association (PAMA), the League of American Orchestras (LOAO), the Black Orchestral Network (BON), the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and the International Horn Society (IHS). 

Her former affiliations include the National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH), American Society of Administrative Professionals (ASAP), Association of Arts Administration Educators (AAAE), and the National Association for Music Educators (NAfME).
 

Katie is a Salvadoran-born American who was adopted as an newborn infant during the Salvadoran Civil War of the 1980s. She was raised in rural North Dakota by a Midwestern farming family of Scandinavian-American heritage. In 2001, she was able to find her indigenous birth mother, and in 2026, she traveled to San Salvador to meet her birth family in person for the first time.
 

Katie is passionate about exploring and learning about the heritage, ancestry, and histories of both her biological and adoptive families. In her free time, she enjoys writing, drawing, wood-burning art, hiking, savoring a good cup of coffee, reading tarot, and getting lost in a good book. An avid lifelong learner, her interests include psychology, world cultures, medicine, and spirituality.