Dr. Casey McGrath

Celebrated for her "sensitive and soulful interpretations" and a "tone reminiscent of the greats of the past" (Chronicle Musique) violinist Casey McGrath has established herself as a soloist, orchestral violinist, and collaborative musician across genre lines.
A graduate of the Cincinnati Conservatory (Master of Music) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Doctor of Musical Arts), Casey has served as concertmaster for the Fox Valley Orchestra, the Fox Valley Philharmonic, and the Salt Creek Ballet. As an orchestral violinist, she has performed with New Philharmonic, the Northwest Indiana Symphony, Elgin Symphony, Rockford Symphony, Illinois Valley Symphony, Lafayette Symphony, Marion Philharmonic, the Kokomo Symphony, the New Millennium Philharmonic, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of the Pacific, and the Opera, Theater, and Music Festival of Lucca, Italy, among others.
As a concerto soloist, Casey and has appeared with the Joliet Symphony, the Illinois Valley Symphony, the Fox Valley Philharmonic, the Fox Valley Orchestra, and various youth symphonies performing showpieces and concerti by Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Barber, Saint-Saens, Bach, and Sarasate. As a collaborative musician, she served as first violinist for the Navitas String Quartet, Baroque violinist for the Antiqua Baroque Consort, and as violinist for tango band, Tango Espejo.
After over a decade as an academic and orchestral violinist, Casey founded the Fiddlerock! project, a solo show that merges the worlds of classical and popular music with her virtuosic renditions of over three hundred rock, pop, metal, and country classics. She has released studio recordings of her covers of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Radiohead, Metallica, Halsey, Simon and Garfunkel, and Tool, in addition to the tango violin solos for the film soundtrack, Deadly Embrace.

Casey is the co-author of the book, Performance Anxiety Strategies: A Musician’s Guide to Managing Stage Fright (Rowman and Littlefield, 2016; Bloombury, 2026) and has served on the music faculties of Lewis University, Joliet Junior College, the University of St. Francis, OPUS Chamber Music Camp, and Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. She was named to the Illinois Valley Chamber of Commerce’s “Forty Under Forty” list in 2022.