Catherine Mackintosh has been one of the most active violinists on the English early music scene. She studied violin with Aurea Pernel and Silvia Rosenberg at the Royal College of Music, London. During her student years, she studied chamber music with Kenneth Skeaping and sang in Roger Norrington's Schütz choir. She was then awarded a three-year scholarship (1967-1969) to attend the European Seminars of Early Music in Bruges, where she performed on the early violin and viola, the viola d'amore, and the viol. In 1969, she helped found the Consort of Musicke and also joined the English Consort of Viols. In 1973, she became the first concertmistress of the Academy of Ancient Music, a position she held until 1987. With this orchestra, she made important recordings under the direction of Christopher Hogwood, including Handel's Messiah, the complete Mozart symphonies, and Vivaldi's L'estro armonico and the Four Seasons (sharing the solo parts in these concertos with Alison Bury, John Holloway, and Monica Huggett). In 1984, Mackintosh founded the Purcell Quartet, with which she recorded trio sonatas by Lawes, Purcell, Biber, Corelli, Handel, and Leclair. That same year, she became co-concertmistress with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, with which she made the first recording on period instruments of Vivaldi's concertos for viola d'amore. In 1997, she recorded Bach's violin sonatas with Maggie Cole. Mackintosh is an influential teacher of the early violin, having trained a new generation of period-instrument string players. She has taught at the Royal College of Music, London (1977-1999), and at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (from 1988).