Saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Louisa Kataria enjoys a colourful portfolio career spanning an array of genres including classical, jazz, musical theatre, contemporary, and commercial music.
Having achieved her ATCL Diploma with distinction aged 16 (saxophone), Louisa made her concerto debut a year later with the Glazanov Saxophone Concerto, conducted by Gonzalo Acosta, and later won the woodwind categories of the St Albans and Rickmansworth Young Musician competitions. She went on to win a Leverhulme Arts Scholarship to the Royal College of Music where she studied saxophone with Martin Robertson, clarinet with Janet Hilton, and jazz flute with Andy Panayi. Louisa was a woodwind finalist in the RCM’s concerto competition with Villa Lobos’ Fantasia and continues to enjoy classical solo performance since graduating in 2023 with First Class Honours. She has recently given recitals at St Mary’s, Barnes and St Michael’s, Highgate and played in masterclasses with Gerard McChrystal and Marcus Weiss.
Louisa has performed with orchestras including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Musical Theatre Orchestra, Pegasus Opera, Tête-á-Tête Opera, and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. She is also in demand as a woodwind ‘trebler’ and, since making her West-End Debut at the London Palladium in 2022, has Musical Theatre credits that include White Christmas (The Mill at Sonning) Hairspray (Epsom Playhouse), Anything Goes (Thames Christian School), Merrily We Roll Along (RCSSD), Sister Act (Epsom Playhouse), and Curtains (RCSSD). She was a regular member of the RCM Jazz Orchestra and later lead clarinet for Lewes Big Band, and has had commercial bookings ranging from televised events at OVO Wembley Arena to the red carpet at World Vogue.
A lover of chamber music, Louisa plays soprano saxophone in Versa Winds. Versa Winds is a quartet of RCM graduates all trained in jazz and classical disciplines on saxophone, clarinet and flute, culminating in a shared expertise across a wide range of musical styles. Their performances to date include at the Elgar Room (Royal Albert Hall), King’s Place, London, St James’s Piccadilly, Kew Gardens, and for Wimbledon International Music Festival. For more information on upcoming concerts or to hire Versa Winds for weddings, workshops and events, please visit their website.
Louisa is a passionate educator and is committed to inspiring the next generation through the Versa Winds workshop series. She also holds Woodwind teaching positions at ACS Hillingdon International School and Orchard House School, and is the clarinet/flute tutor for LMTO’s outreach programme: Upbeat since 2023. In July 2025, Louisa joined Hold the Drama on clarinet for their Bradford Tour, touring their non-verbal mental-health themed show to 9 different audiences in one week.
Louisa is grateful to have been supported by the Wolfson Instrument Award Fund for the purchase of her Selmer series ii soprano saxophone.
Louisa is also an accomplished choral singer and supplements her musician’s portfolio with a large number of singing engagements. She has performed, recorded and been broadcast on TV and radio with professional groups such as St Martin's Voices, the Lerion Consort, and Stellina, an all female classical-crossover group who have had numerous TV appearances including on BBC Songs of Praise.
Louisa’s singing career began aged 8 as a chorister of St Albans Abbey Girls Choir. Her performance training is also thanks to her time in the Royal Opera House’s Youth Opera Company with whom she performed in the children’s chorus of the 2013-14 season of Carmen.
Her solo credits include Mendelssohn’s Laude Sion and O for the Wings of a Dove with London Pro Arte Choir, and more recently, the Mozart Requiem. Louisa can be heard in numerous solos on the St Albans Abbey Girls Choir’s album William Mathias: Choral Music, produced by Naxos.
Louisa was a choral scholar at St Martin-in-the-Fields for the 23/24 season.