Kirsten Docter, a native of Bloomington, Minnesota studied at Oberlin Conservatory with Lynne Ramsey and Jeffery Irvine and at the Curtis Institute of Music with Karen Tuttle. She won the 1991 Primrose International Viola Competition and has appeared as soloist and with ensembles in the former Soviet Union, Europe, and Central and North America. She is currently on the viola and chamber music faculties at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Her hobbies include gardening, reading, and vegetarian cooking.