Teacher

After many years spent pursuing a performing career in the New York City area, Katherine Harris has recently relocated to her hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, and is pleased to be accepting vocal students of all levels, aged 14 and up.

Ms. Harris is the Music Director at First Unitarian Church in Wilmington, Del, and also serves as Adjunct Professor of Voice at Kean University Conservatory of Music in Union, NJ. She recently taught as sabbatical replacement Professor of Voice at the University of Delaware, and has taught students of all ages in community music schools and in her private studio for 30+ years. Her students have delighted audiences in performances with professional and community theater companies, young artist apprentice programs, opera companies and Broadway touring productions across the United States. They have also competed successfully in vocal competitions and been awarded scholarships at top music schools.

Ms. Harris has trained in voice with Helen Hodam, Doris Yarick Cross, Armen Boyajian, Ruth Falcon and Robert Grooters; in acting with Tito Capobianco and Bernard Uzan; and has coached with Joan Dornemann, Regine Crespin, Leontyne Price and Margaret Harshaw. She holds a B.M. in Voice Performance and a M.M. in Opera from The Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and pursued further graduate studies at Yale University School of Music. She also participated in young artist training programs at the San Francisco Opera Company.

Enjoying a reputation for her “magnificently rich, controlled soprano”, Katherine Harris has received critical acclaim in a variety of operatic and concert roles throughout the United States and abroad. She has been heard in Verdi roles such as Amelia in "Un Ballo in Maschera", Meena in "Aroldo", Gulnara in "Il Corsaro", and Alice Ford in "Falstaff". Her Puccini repertoire includes Mimi and Musetta in "La Boheme" and Cio-cio San in "Madama Butterfly". She has also excelled in Mozart’s operas, including Pamina in "Magic Flute", Aminta in "Il Re Pastore", and Zerlina and Donna Anna in "Don Giovanni". Her oratorio repertoire includes the "Requiems" of Mozart, Brahms, Faure, Verdi and John Rutter, Handel’s "Messiah" and "Samson", Mendelssohn’s "Elijah", and Haydn’s "Lord Nelson Mass". Other concert repertoire includes Barber’s "Knoxville Summer of 1915", Britten’s "Les Illuminations", and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

She has performed as soloist with many organizations, including The Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Prague Radio Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Symphony Orchestras of New Haven, CT, Northeastern Pennsylvania, Owensboro, KY, Midland-Odessa, TX, Altoona, PA and Glens Falls, NY, the Arco Ensemble, the Monmouth Civic Chorus, Ars Musica, Palisades Virtuosi, I Cantori di New York, Western Opera Theater, New York Grand Opera, and Connecticut Concert Opera. In 2004, Ms. Harris made her Carnegie Hall solo debut with the Oratorio Society of NY in Mozart’s "Requiem" and Haydn’s "Mass in Time of War."

Ms. Harris has been heard in recital throughout the East Coast, including in programs of music by women composers during Women’s History Month, and as Duo Cantiga with guitarist Christopher Kenniff. Her recording of James Wagoner’s "Song of Solomon" with I Cantori di NY is available on the PGM label.