Her Story
About Katherine
Katherine Held is a songwriter, bassist, producer, and A&R professional specializing in music. Based in Miami, Florida, she scouts talent for musical distribution while also working with emerging artists as a musician and songwriter. She began her musical journey as a teenager and has been active in the field for over 20 years. Katherine graduated from Bass Guitar Performance at the Atlanta Institute of Music in 2008 after starting her studies at La Javeriana and completing her degree at Sergio Arboleda in Colombia in 2014. She is a member of Women in Music and attributes her success to the unwavering support of her family, including her parents and husband. Among the values she holds most important are respect for others and herself, loyalty, and enjoyment in her work. She advises patience and continuity in music careers, noting it is a long path rather than a race of speed, and encourages young women not to take for granted the educational tools and social media resources now available.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Katherine
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my family, because they have always been very supportive of whatever I want to do. I have very supportive parents, and then I have a really supportive husband, so all of my life, I've been surrounded by people who have cheered me up and made me believe in myself.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Music is not a race of speed, but a race of patience and continuity. So you just have to be patient, and keep doing your work, and not racing to get anywhere, because it's a long career. It's not something that is gonna end fast. When you are young or when you are old, you can be a musician your entire life.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Don't take for granted what you have been given. You have a space to educate yourself, you have social media to learn. Those things were not available 20 years ago, so my advice would be just to not take for granted what you were given.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
As a woman, one of the biggest challenges I have faced is to be able to choose my family over the career, because the career is very consuming, and you most of the times just want to be successful. But it's only a part of your life. If you have an emergency with personal life, and it's just like because you're all the time so focused becoming successful, you sometimes lose yourself in that pressure.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Respect for others, for myself, loyalty, and enjoyment, because you shouldn't be doing what you have to be doing if you're not enjoying it.
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