An experienced arts educator & administrator, Insell is currently the Executive Director of the Bronx Arts Ensemble after previously serving as the organization’s Artistic Director. She previously held the positions of Director of the School for Performing Arts at Bronx House, Director of Music at the Harlem School of the Arts, and Assistant Director of Instrumental Studies at Mannes College of Music, The New School. She also served for 6 years on Manhattan Community Board 9(MCB9), where she chaired the Youth, Education, & Libraries Committee, and served on the Arts & Culture Committee and the MCB9 Executive Board. She is currently a board member of the Community League of The Heights(CLOTH), serving on the Executive Board as the Secretary.

As a professional violist, Insell has collaborated with marquee artists: Beyoncé, India.Arie, John Cale, Suzanne Vega, Lee Konitz, Greg Osby, Elio Villafranca, Larry Harlow, and Miguel Zenon. She has appeared on Saturday Night Live (SNL), and Late Night With Stephen Colbert. She has also performed in the Broadway show orchestras for Once Upon A One More Time, Les Miserablé (25th Anniversary Edition), An American In Paris, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Gypsy, Ms. Saigon, Tommy, Carousel, and Kiss of the Spider Woman and recently performed in the musical “SUFFS” at the Public Theater. As an orchestral musician, Insell has performed with the New Jersey Symphony, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Parlando Chamber Orchestra, National Chorale and Orchestra & is currently a member of the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra. As an improvising violist, she is a former member of “Soldier String Quartet,” “Sojourner,” and “Twisted Standard Trio” She is currently a member of the avant-garde jazz collective “Jump Off This Bridge.”

Judith is the proud recipient of the 2023 Jazz Journalists Award: “Bronx Jazz Hero,” presented to advocates who have had a significant impact in their local communities supporting the art form of jazz. She has also been a featured panelist for Lincoln Center’s “Summer for the City: June 2023: “ Lift Every Voice and Sing: African American Contributions to the American Orchestral Canon” and July 2023: “Exploring Futures: Panel on Careers in the Arts,” curated for NYC Middle & High School Students.

Insell has a featured “idea” in the Center for an Urban Future’s “50 Ideas for a Stronger and More Equitable Bronx, ” supplying an arts education proposal. She also participated in the 2021-2023 New York State Council for the Arts (NYSCA) “Orchestral Pathways” Cohort, contributing to the design of a blueprint document to guide funders in best practices for supporting the work of nonprofit Arts & Arts Education organizations to provide pathways to underserved students to enter the classical music workforce.