Kathy Marcinek spent her first 25 years in western Massachusetts.  She started playing saxophone in 5^th grade; she played bari sax in 7^th grade and in her high school jazz band for 4 years.  On a whim, she was coaxed into playing sousaphone for 2 marching seasons. ( Of note- Allen Farnham, now a noted jazz pianist, was one of her cohorts in the tuba section, which took pride in its unusual and often crude displays of humor).

After High School, Kathy retired her saxophone for nearly 2 decades. In the meantime, she earned a dual degree in biology and economics from Mt. Holyoke College , then earned a degree in nursing from UMass/Amherst (she was able to play tuba during those years). She spent the next 5 years as an Air Force nurse. She, husband Tom, and their 2 children moved to the Chattanooga area in 1990, where she continued to work full time as a nurse and to pursue her master’s degree in nursing (UTC). She started playing tuba again in local community groups and musical productions. In 1997, she was given the opportunity to dust off her saxophone, to play with the Legionnaires. She joined Sweet Georgia Sound in 2000 after serving as a substitute. Playing the bari sax is therapeutic, allowing her to vent the frustrations she encounters at her job as a case manager/ nurse at Memorial North Park Hospital (and as the mother of 2 teenagers). To keep her lungs in shape, she swims regularly at the YMCA. She cites Manny Bowen and Claire Daly as influences on her style of playing.