In today’s installment of our “Meet The Salvatones” series, we profile member Kathryn Wieckhorst! Kathryn bounces back and forth between soprano and alto parts with The Salvatones. She has been a good sight reader since learning to read music at age 8 when she picked up the cello for the first time. Growing up in Levittown, NY, she was largely self taught at home, and began participating in local all-county and string festivals in 5th grade on Long Island. Always feeling a passion for singing, Kathryn joined the chorus in high school, where it was discovered she has perfect pitch. She decided music would be her life’s work in her senior year, when she attended the BOCES Cultural Arts Center (now the Long Island High School for the Arts) and received her first formal instruction. Kathryn then went on to Hofstra University to pursue music education and vocal performance, and where she sang in the operas and many of the ensembles, including the chamber singers, as one of the only freshmen to have been accepted into the group, and studied voice with Avalee Beckmann and Tammy Hensrud. She also continued to play in the orchestra and various chamber ensembles. After a break from formal education, she then went on to receive her Master of Arts degree in vocal performance from Queens College, studying with Sherry Overholt, who is her present private voice instructor. As a member of the choir at the Cathedral of Saint Patrick since 2006, Kathryn has been well-acquainted with Artistic Director Daniel Brondel and co-founder Salvatore Diana when she auditioned for The Salvatones back in 2011. She has performed in many concerts and events with The Salvatones, including all holiday events at Sugar Foods and Barclay Street, the Many Sounds of Christmas concerts, concerts at Saint John’s in the Village and Wagner College, the concert at Park Avenue Christian Church (which was her favorite performance memory with the group), and an outreach educational performance in Greenwich, CT. Kathryn is also the communications manager of The Salvatones, writing for and monitoring their social media presence. In terms of ensembles, Kathryn has been a sub at various churches and synagogues in the NYC area and has sung with the National Chorale. When asked what she loves about singing in an ensemble, Kathryn said, “As much as I love being a soloist, I also love being able to work together with other singers to create something amazing that I wouldn’t be able to do on my own.” As a soloist, Kathryn sings mainly in operas. In the summer of 2013, she made her professional international debut as Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte in the Festival of the Aegean. She has worked with the Bronx Opera Company, OperaOggi, the Long Island Opera Company, and the Festival Junger Künster Bayreuth in Germany singing roles such as Violetta in La Traviata, Musetta in La Bohéme, Micaela in Carmen, Blanche in Dialogues of the Carmelites, the title role in Suor Angelica, Madame Herz in The Impresario, the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro, and other small roles. Kathryn also made her Carnegie Hall solo debut in 2013 as the soprano soloist in Vivaldi’s Gloria. Owing to her sight reading skills, she also specializes in modern music and has sung premieres of both operatic roles and concert work. When asked why singing is important to her, Kathryn responded, “Music is a universal language. I have had many people come up to me and say, ‘I have no clue what language you were singing in just now, but I didn’t need to; I felt it in my soul.’ Music speaks to the soul in a manner to which words alone cannot even come close.” Along with fellow Salvatones member Adrienne Patino Dunn, Kathryn sings in Opera Collective, a performing company that makes it affordable to see opera around New York regardless of their economic status. When she is not singing, Kathryn is also a passionate animal rights advocate. She has been a volunteer and is now a shift leader/volunteer trainer with KittyKind, a no-kill animal shelter in NYC that provides adoptable cats for the Meow Parlour Cat Café! Kathryn currently lives on Long Island with her dramaturg/stage director husband Dirk and her cat Smores, who thinks she is also quite a diva herself. Thank you for singing with us and for all that you do, Kathryn!
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 20:28:16 +0000
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