At the age of 11 Catherine  started piano lessons but with a natural ear for music and rhythm she quit formal lessons and at 14 joined the band as its piano player. Here she had the most valuable piano lessons she would ever need. By this time the lineup of the band had changed, with sister Jennifer also joining the band playing double bass and Chris Duncan playing fiddle, who had joined some years earlier, bringing the number in the band to eight and establishing Coalbrook as one of the most sought after dance bands in the traditional dance and music scene. Throughout the 1980's to late 1990's Coalbrook regularly played in Sydney for The Bush Music Club's bush dances and colonial balls. For over fifteen years the band was one of four resident bush bands playing friday and saturday nights at a local bush barn functioning as a bush dance theme restaurant until its close in the early 2000's.

As the new millennium approached and other forms of entertainment took over, the popularity of the bush dance began to fade and while Coalbrook, now numbering four (the Strutt family), still played for the occasional bush band gig, Catherine and her family turned to pursue their interests in other music traditions both as a group and as individuals.

As a member of her family band, Catherine has been exposed to immeasurable musical opportunities. Both in 1996 and 1999 Coalbrook performed at Kaustinen, Finland's National Folk Festival, and introduced the Scandinavian audience to the cultural traditions of Anglo Australia. Being Australian the band was regarded as exotic and so they were well received playing to packed venues. An old friendship that had begun between the band and Scandinavia in 1986 while playing at a World Folk Festival in Canada, had redeveloped  so much so that as the demand for the bush band faded, Coalbrook emerged as Salmiakki Pelimannit, loosely translated as " salty licorice folk musicians", playing the traditional music of Finland and Sweden.( Salmiakki is a nasty type of licorice found in Finland, sweet on the outside, sour on the inside!). With Salmiakki, Catherine has performed playing the harmonium,( a traditional instrument for Finland) at many Scandinavian and folk festivals in Australia including the National Folk Festival, EuroFest, and Canberra's Multicultural Festival along with concerts and dances. Then, in 2003, Salmiakki was accepted to perform at Nordlek Scandinavian Dance Festival in Denmark as a Scandinavian band playing in a  band with 150 other Scandinavian musicians. The experience was unforgettable and forever opened  Catherine's ears and mind to the rich musical traditions of Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Estonia.

 Although Catherine has a great interest in the music of Scandinavia, it is the traditional fiddle music of Scotland that really drives her. As an eight year old she was taken to Scottish Country Dance classes with her parents where she developed a liking for the reels, jigs and strathpeys she was dancing to. It was here that she first met the young Chris Duncan, a friend of her parents, playing for one of her classes. A friendship was started and in 1990 a few years after joining Coalbrook, Chris introduced Catherine to Scottish fiddle music and the pair quickly developed a shared enthusiasm for the music exploring new ideas and pushing old boundaries of what was considered acceptable  scottish dance music. Catherine's early years of playing  piano accompaniment with Chris, an already expert fiddle player, proved to have been the most challenging, fastest, and steepest learning curve of her musical life. But as her rapport with Chris grew and their musical compatibility developed, the duo, with their combination of fiddle and piano, became increasingly in demand for concerts, dances, private functions, folk festivals and highland gatherings around Australia. Chris and Catherine had become and still remain Australia's foremost traditional Scottish music duo.

 In 1996, Catherine was awarded a scholarship from the local scottish dance community to travel to California, USA, to attend Alasdair Fraser's scottish fiddle summer camp, Valley Of The Moon. Under the tutelage of renowned Cape Breton pianist Barbara MacDonald Magone, she spent an intensive week at the piano studying scottish style piano accompaniment. Barbara's gutsy yet subtle piano touch and her attitude towards the accompaniment of scottish fiddle music stayed with Catherine as she began to  develop her own style of piano accompaniment.

  It wasn't until a few years later however that she discovered what was to become the true essence of her own style of accompaniment. In 1999  she traveled to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia Canada, and attended The Ceilidh Trail School of Celtic Music and St Anne's Gaelic College. For five weeks Catherine was immersed in the island's untiring music, traditionally fiddle and piano, studying under some of the best Cape Breton piano players including Tracey Dares. The vibrant, syncopated groove of the Cape Breton style of piano playing was a great influence on Catherine's comparatively modest style of playing. By combining the two she has developed her own unique style and with her innate sense of rhythm, colour and harmony, has become one of the finest Scottish style pianists in Australia.

As a duo with Chris Duncan she has played at most major folk festivals in Australia including The National Folk Festival, Woodford Folk Festival and Port Fairy Folk Festival along with smaller festivals including Cygnet and Georgetown Folk Festivals in Tasmania. Since 1990, Catherine has played for countless dances, balls and some Scottish Dance winter schools, Nationally and Internationally including San Francisco, USA, and New Zealand. She teaches piano accompaniment at Australia's celtic music school, Music Under The Mountains, every January in Tasmania.

In 1999,Catherine and Chris's superlative music was recognised when, along with virtuoso cellist Julian Thompson, they recorded for ABC Classics "Fyvie's Embrace". The genre of the album was a first for ABC Classics and may have proved to be unsuccessful but it was received with critical acclaim and excitement going on to sell almost eleven thousand copies since its release. In 2000 "Fyvie's Embrace" was awarded the ARIA for Best World Music Album. The trio's much anticipated second album, "The Red House", will be released by ABC Classics in September 2006.