Kathlene is comfortable performing in many different genres – early music, choral, and sacred, to musical theater and cabaret. From having grown up in church choirs and summer stock, with a year in Salzburg studying music after high school, to the halls of the University of Texas in Austin, Kathlene found a common thread in whatever style she was performing…the connection with the audience.
“When I sing, I have an emotional story that I need to convey through the words and music. And it is my job as the singer to help the audience connect, and therefore experience the story through these emotions. If they don’t feel anything, I haven’t done my job.”
After earning a Bachelor’s of Music Studies degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a brief stint on a Holland America cruise ship, she moved to New York City where she sang with such noted ensembles as the New York Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta, and the Vienna Philharmonic. In 2001, she made her solo debut at Lincoln Center with the American Symphony Orchestra in Liszt’s Dante’s Inferno. With that same ensemble, she recorded a live concert version of Die aegyptische Helena as Hermione opposite Deborah Voigt’s Helen.
Kathlene’s true passion, musical theater, has been a lifelong pursuit. Her first role came at the age of 4, when she was cast as Marta in The Sound of Music. Some of her favorite roles include Sandy in Grease, Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, Maria in The Sound of Music, and Eliza in My Fair Lady. Two of her career highlights were performing Sweeney Todd at Lincoln Center with George Hearn, Patti Lupone and Neil Patrick Harris, as well as the concert version of Carousel at Carnegie Hall with Audra McDonald and Hugh Jackman. She is also an experienced music director, having led from behind the piano for Oklahoma!, Follies, Working, The Fantasticks, and Godspell, to name a few.
In 2011, Kathlene felt like it was time for a change of pace and moved to Santa Fe to be the accompanist for the Santa Fe High School Choral Department and the Director of the Royal School of Church Music at the Church of the Holy Faith. In 2012, she stumbled into being an on-air announcer for Classical 95.5 KHFM Albuquerque/Santa Fe, for which she has received a New Mexico Broadcasting Award. In 2016, Kathlene joined the voice faculty at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design in their musical theater program. She still continues to sing with such groups as the Santa Fe Desert Chorale and the Grammy-winning ensemble Conspirare, with whom she is a featured soloist in their PBS special “Conspirare, a Company of Voices” and their most recently Grammy-nominated “Considering Matthew Shepard” CD.
Kathlene belongs to Beyond Artists, a coalition of artists that donates a percentage of their concert fees to organizations they care about. She supports the International Rescue Committee, charity water.org, and the Matthew Shepard Foundation through her performances.
