BIo
(SHORT)
Kaethe Hostetter is violinist, bandleader, composer, and educator, whose music was shaped as much by immersion as by training. Classically trained and forged in the avant-jazz and improvisation scenes in Boston and New York, many years as a circus musician, and deep forays into a variety of folk traditions, she spent twelve years living and collaborating in Ethiopia, absorbing its melodic systems, song forms, and everyday musical life. Her debut solo album Impressions of Ethiopia transforms that experience into a solo, ritual-like performance for violin, live looping, and electronics, where Ethiopian songs are re-imagined and performed as a one-woman show and often accompanied by projections drawn from Ethiopian textiles and street life.
BIo
(LONG)
Kaethe Hostetter is a violinist, violist, composer, bandleader, educator, and multidisciplinary artist whose work bridges experimental music, folk traditions, improvisation, and immersive performance. Raised in the countercultural communities of the Santa Cruz Mountains and now based in Brooklyn, she has spent her career moving fluidly between concert halls, underground venues, community spaces, and international stages, creating music rooted equally in rigorous craft, curiosity, and human connection.
Her solo album, Woradj Alle (Impressions of Ethiopia for Solo Violin and Electronics), under artist name K8A, marks the culmination of more than a decade living, studying, performing, and collaborating with master musicians in Addis Ababa. Released by Domino Sound, the work transforms Ethiopian melodies through live looping, electronics, extended violin techniques, and composition while honoring the traditions from which they emerged. Her solo work represents both a reflection on eleven years immersed in Ethiopian musical life and the beginnings of a broader multimedia practice that combines music, visual storytelling, textiles, and archival research.
As founding violinist of the acclaimed Ethio-jazz collective Debo Band and founder of future roots ensemble QWANQWA, Kaethe has helped introduce Ethiopian music to audiences across North America and Europe through hundreds of performances, including appearances at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Newport Jazz Festival, Bonnaroo, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Montréal International Jazz Festival, Nuits d'Afrique, Chicago World Music Festival, South by Southwest, Rosklide, Le Guess Who?, and the Ethiopian Music Festival in Addis Ababa. Her work has also included collaborations with artists as varied as Teddy Afro, Butch Morris, Fred Frith's Gravity Ensemble, and David Lynch. Alongside her many tours in circus tents with accordionist Peter Bufano and the greater Northeast circus community, Kaethe accompanies her mom, recognized mandolinist Irene Herrmann, playing guitar for repertoire of mandolin music of the Italian immigrants in Bay Area.
Kaethe’s musical language has been shaped mainly by the communities oworld. Growing up with a luthier father and multi-instrumentalist mother, she learned early that music is both craft and community, continually embracing of experimentation without abandoning accessibility.
While tudying with private teachers and at the Longy School of Music and the Boston Conservatory, she developed her voice equally within Boston's classical, punk, improvised, and DIY music scenes—a rich lateral education that taught her not only about the essence of true artistry and virtuosity , but also how to build sustainable artistic ecosystems across aesthetics, ancross continents.
That entrepreneurial spirit has become a defining feature of her career. Entirely through independent work, Kaethe has produced recordings, organized international tours, navigated complex immigration processes for multinational ensembles, managed international artists, booked extensive tours, produced concerts, and developed long-term creative collaborations across continents. Alongside her work as an artist, she serves as a booking agent, producer, and tour manager, both independently and with the boutique world music booking agency, the awesome company, bringing the same care and vision to supporting other musicians that she brings to her own projects. Under these auspices she has worked with Bassekou Kouyate, Fendika, Nile Project, Ballake Cissokho, Meridian Brothers, El Khat, Frente Cumbiero, and more. Her experience demonstrates a rare combination of artistic excellence and practical leadership within today's independent music landscape.
A recipient of a Jerome Foundation Artist Award, Kaethe has released fifteen full-length recordings and has been recognized through a Sundance Film Festival Composer Spotlight for her work in film music. Whether composing for solo violin and electronics, leading large ensembles, or performing intimate acoustic concerts, she approaches every project with an instinct for collaboration, cultural exchange, and experimentation.
Education and mentorship remain central to her practice. While in Ethiopia, Kaethe engaged with the local western string playing community of Addis Ababa, and lead them in developing a pedagogy that combines Ethiopian modal systems and western string technique. To realize this vision and to connect her worlds back home she imported over 60 donated violins, sourced from her trusted string communities in US. She has hosted a variety of workshops at the Conservatory level, and currently serves as Director of the String Program at P.S. 69 in Brooklyn. She believes that artistic excellence and broad public engagement are inseparable, and her work consistently seeks to create meaningful encounters between traditions, audiences, and communities.
Alongside her solo work, Kaethe performs with the folk duo The Binoculars, whose debut album Double Whammy (Jalopy Records), resurrects overlooked American traditional songs and instrumental folk melodies from the world over, through inventive arrangements and close vocal harmony.
Across every project, her work reflects a lifelong commitment to curiosity, craftsmanship, and the belief that music can be both deeply adventurous and radically welcoming.
Curriculum vitae
KAETHE HOSTETTER
Violist / Violinist — Composer, Bandleader, Teacher, Agent (performs solo work as “K8A”)
351 Van Brunt St 3R, Brooklyn, NY 11231 | 929-484-5369 | kaethehostetter@gmail.com | www.kaethehostetter.com
TOURS & CONCERTS OF NOTE
Solo
Roulette Intermedium, Impressions of Ethiopia (album release), Brooklyn, NY, 2026
Kuumbwa Jazz Center, Impressions of Ethiopia (album release), Santa Cruz, CA, 2026
Tigermen Den, Impressions of Ethiopia (album release,) New Orleans, LA, 2026
Live Solo Show, WFMU, Transpacific Sound Paradise, 2020/2026
Residency, Barbès, Brooklyn, November 2025
Flushing Town Hall, Global Mashup, Queens, New York, 2024
Residency, Barbès, Brooklyn, Spring, 2023
Globalquerque World Music Fest, 2023
Featured Performance, Chicago Jazz Strings Summit, 2020
Solo Experimental Performance alongside filmmaker David Lynch, Boston, 2011
Farmers' Market Santa Cruz, 2020–present
QWANQWA
Festival Au Tour Des Chords, Saint-Louis, Senegal. 2025
45-date US National Tour, Spring 2024
20-date Europe Tour, Summer 2024
60-date US National Tour, 2022
Italy and Switzerland Tour, August 2019
Sardinia Tour, September 2018
WOMEX Showcase, Katowice, Poland, October 2017
Europe: Prague, Berlin, Paris, Geneva, Copenhagen, Fall 2017
Europe: Belgium, France, Summer 2016
Roskilde, Denmark, July 2016
Debo Band
US Tours, including Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Kennedy Center, GlobalFest, Bonnaroo, Bumbershoot, New Orleans Jazz Fest, Festival International de Louisiane, Calgary Folk Festival, Montreal Jazz Fest, Nuits d'Afrique, Chicago World Music Festival, Roskilde, 2008–2019, South by Southwest, Sauti za Busara (Zanzibar), and the Ethiopian Music Festival (Addis Ababa).
Lamb Soundtrack
Europe Tours: Slovenia, Vienna, Germany, UK, Denmark, 2017
Zanzibar, Sauti za Busara, January 2010
Debo Band with Ayalew Mesfin
Europe Tour: Holland, October 2019
US Tour: Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, January 2018
Fred Frith's Gravity Ensemble
Moers Festival, Germany — Nijmegen, Holland, 2015
Roulette, NYC, 2014
Victoriaville, Canada, 2014
The Binoculars
Northeast and Canada Album Release Summer Tour 2026
Fiddle Tunes, featured performer, 2026
Vermont Tour, 2025
Americana Fest, 2025
Residency at Sunny’s 2024-Present
Album Release, Francis Kite Club, LES, NY 2026
Circus / Cirkestra
Bindlestiff, A Cardboard and Duct Tape Spectacular, National Tour, 2018
Smithsonian Folk Festival, Washington DC, 2017
Gardner Museum, Boston, 2007, 2011
Circus Smirkus Tour, 2002, 2003, 2007
Bindlestiff, From the Gutter to the Glitter, National Tour, 2005
Soundtrack, Circus Dreams, 2012
Many variety shows in and around New York 2000-present
Juma Sultan
Pioneer Works, 2026
O+ Festival, Kingston, NY, 2025
DJ K8A
WFMU
Barbès
PROFESSIONAL TOURING
QWANQWA — Band Leader (2012–Present)
Booking and networking for QWANQWA and other bands
Organizing all tech and travel arrangements
Tour managing
Visa processes for all musicians on 60-concert, 3-month tours
Financial, bookkeeping, accounting, and taxes for all members
Current & Recent Engagements
Eliades Ochoa, Tour Manager
QWANQWA, North American Spring Tour, 2024,
QWANQWA, North American Tour, 2022
QWANQWA, Europe Tour, Summer 2024
Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni Ba, 2024, 2023
Thalia Zedek Band — Violinist; Driving, Tour Managing, Merch, Europe, March–April 2022 (5 weeks back to back)
Los Pirhaňas
Meridian Brothers
Thalia Zedek Band — Driving, Tour Managing, Merch, US, Fall 2022 (3 weeks back to back)
Devil Music Ensemble — Driving, Tour Managing, Merch, Europe, 2011 / 2013 / 2017
Debo Band — Tour Manager & Merch, 2014, 2018
Cirkestra — Tour Manager and Driver, 2011, 2014
Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, 2004–2025
Nile Project — East Africa Organizer, 2010–2016
Juma Sultan
Agent Activities
Northeast Agent for Nepantla, World Class Live, and Awesome Company
QWANQWA's international agent for US and Europe, 2014–2025
Booking, marketing, tour managing, driving, translating (French and Amharic, both directions), merch, accounting, strategizing, routing, merch design, international taxes, international artist visas, logistics, etc.
FILM & MEDIA COMPOSING
Composert, Faya Dayi (2021)
Composer, full soundtrack, Wof Zerash Coffee (2024)
Sundance Film Festival, ASCAP Composer Spotlight, 2021
Arranger, Darkon (2006)
CLASSICAL / ORCHESTRAL & CHAMBER MUSIC
Freelancing around greater Boston & New York, 2002–current
Boston Philharmonic, Principal Viola, under Benjamin Zander, 2002–2010
String Orchestra of Brooklyn, Principal Viola, 2019
Grace Chorale, Concert Master, 2019
Manhattan String Quartet, Assistant Coach: Bartók in Budapest (2005), Verdi in Parma (2008), Smetana in Prague (2015), Haydn in Vienna (2018), Brahms in Bologna (2019)
TEACHING & WORKSHOPS
Noel Pointer, Director of String Program, Brooklyn, 2024-present
Fiddle Tunes, faculty, Port Townsend, WA, 2026
Guest Lecturer, Amherst College, Spring 2025
Guest Lecturer, New England Conservatory, Spring 2025
Saint Ann's School — Chamber Music Coach, violin & viola, group & individual classes, Brooklyn, 2023–Present
Introduction to Ethiopian Music, Labyrinth, San Francisco, 2020–Present
Private teaching, violin/viola, all levels and ages, group and individual, 2006–Present
Santa Cruz Youth Chamber Strings, 2020–Present
World Music Institute: Music of Ethiopia Inside and Out, 2021
String Panels and World Music Violin Panels: Milwaukee, Keene State, Old Towne School of Folk Music, Lowell Folk Fest, Montana Folk Festival, Vancouver Folk Festival, Quebec City, 2013–Present
Guest Masterclasses, Berklee College of Music, 2006, 2011, 2014
RESEARCH
History, uses, and techniques of the Ethiopian Masinko, independent, 2009–Present
Anthropological textile research of regional Ethiopian traditions, independent 2012–Present
Italian mandolin tradition in the Bay Area, independent, 2018–Present
DISCOGRAPHY
Woradj Alle (Impressions of Ethiopia), solo album as K8A, Domino Sound, 2026
Double Whammy, The Binoculars, Jalopy Records, 2026
Cacciatore di Tesori, WUZZAWAZZEE Industries, 2025
The Garden, WUZZAWAZZEE Industries, 2023
QWANQWA, Live, WUZZAWAZZEE Industries, 2022
QWANQWA, Vol. 3, WUZZAWAZZEE Industries, 2020
QWANQWA, Vol. 2, FPE Records, 2017
QWANQWA, Vol. 1, FPE Records, 2014
Debo Band, Ere Gobez, FPE Records, 2016
Debo Band, Debo Band, Sub Pop / Next Ambiance, 2012
Lawnmower, with Jim Hobbs, independently released, 2014
Cirkestra, Gutter to the Glitter, independently released, 2005
Quarantunes, with Dan Moon, independently released, 2021
Cirkestra Alice, independently released, 2003
Cirkestra 107, independently released, 2018
GRANTS / FELLOWSHIPS / PARTNERSHIPS
Jerome Foundation Awarded Artist, Roulette Intermedium, 2026
MacArthur Foundation Beneficiary, 2019
OneBeat, Found Sound Nation, Dosti Fellow, 2015
Zoomix, Artist Partner (Debo Band), 2014
Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation Grant Recipient, 2009, 2010
Indexical, Artist in Residence, Santa Cruz, 2022
ENTREPRENEURIAL VENTURES
WUZZAWAZZEE Industries, Owner/Operator, 2012-2020
Errand Boys Courier Service, Owner/Operator, 2006–2009
EDUCATION
Longy School of Music, 2001–2003
Boston Conservatory, 2004–2005
Private Study — Patricia McCarty, Scott Woolweaver, Michelle LaCourse, 2001–2015
LANGUAGE SKILLS
English (fluent, native)
French (working proficiency)
Amharic (working proficiency)