Kristin Van Cleve, MM

Kristin Van Cleve is the Director of the Music Department at the University of Dallas where she also directs the UD Chamber Ensemble program, and teaches violin as well as music history courses. She is Principal Second Violin with the Dallas Opera Orchestra and is Artistic Director and Principal Violinist of the historical performance ensemble, Texas Camerata. 

Kristin began violin studies in her hometown of Fairbanks, Alaska and later moved to Texas, receiving both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Violin Performance from the University of North Texas. As a baroque violinist, she has performed in Boston, Seattle, Washington, D.C., France, Mexico, Bolivia, southeast Asia and throughout the southwest United States. Kristin has performed in Taiwan, in Guangzhou, China and in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and returns annually to Paris, France as part of the summer Festival St. Louis en Ile at the Eglise St. Louis in the heart of the city. In addition to performing with the Dallas Opera Orchestra, Kristin is a member of the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra and has returned to Alaska as a faculty member of the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival. She is a member of the University of Dallas Crowley Trio, which presents a chamber music series annually at the Museum of Biblical Arts in Dallas. A dedicated educator, Kristin founded the University of Dallas Summer Music Academy for middle school and high school students and is also a founding teacher at the DISD-Orchestra of New Spain Summer String camp. Kristin contracts musicians for, and performs with numerous church orchestras in Dallas, performs with the Fort Worth Symphony and is concertmaster of the Wichita Falls Symphony.