About...
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Katherine is currently finishing her Master's in Music at Bard Conservatory. This Spring season she has appeared as "Leila" in Gilbert & Sullivan's Iolanthe and stepped in last minute to perform the second songbook in György Kurtag's Messages of the Late R.V. Troussova as part of Bard's annual Kurtag Festival, conducted by Benjamin Hochman. On March 19th, Katherine performs the orchestral premiere of John Musto's Shadow of the Blues, under the baton of collaborative partner, Colin Roshak. On April 16th, she performs her graduate recital including works of Juliana Hall, Edvard Grieg, Barbara Strozzi and George Crumb. Finally, in mid-May, she will appear at Symphony Space with the Orchestra Now to present Messiaen's Poèmes Pour Mi as the winner of the 2021 Bard Concerto Competition.
Past performances at Bard include the role of Gold-Spurs in Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen at the Fisher Center, a performance of Berio's Folk Songs and the soprano solo in Fauré's Requiem with the Broad Street Orchestra. In April 2022 she presented a recital of Jewish composers with the Red Hook Concert Series and has appeared twice with Concerts in the Village, singing Eve in Haydn's Creation and the soprano solo in Fauré's Requiem.
In the summer of 2021 Ms. Lerner Lee returned to Music Academy of the West for a second summer, where she appeared at the Lobero Theater in a concert of new works and at the Granada Theater as part of the Marilyn Horne Song Competition. Katherine was the recipient of the Ilene H. Nagel and Aristides B. Demetrios Full Scholarship in Voice for a second consecutive year.
Katherine has performed on many prestigious stages, making her Carnegie Hall debut in 2019 on the Perelman Stage as the soprano soloist in Stravinsky's Les Noces, with Oberlin College Choir. Passionate about new music, Katherine appeared at the Bang on a Can Marathon Concert at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, where she appeared in Louis Andriessen's De Staat and the North American premiere of Michael Gordon’s No Anthem. In February of the same year, she performed Harrison Birtwhistle’s Entr’actes and Sappho Fragments at the Cleveland Art Museum with Oberlin’s Contemporary Music Ensemble.
Operatic credits include Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Flora (The Turn of the Screw) and Flora (L'Egisto). Katherine was slated to perform La Princesse in Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges and as well as Holy St. Francis' Trainer in David T. Little's Vinkensport with the Music Academy of the West, though these performances were cancelled due to COVID-19.
Katherine is a recipient of the Pi Kappa Lambda Prize for musicianship and the Faustina Hurlbutt Prize from Oberlin Conservatory and is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda and Phi Beta Kappa, national honors societies for music and academics, respectively. She was also a 2019 winner of the Tri-State Opera Guild of Dayton competition.
When not performing, Katherine enjoys dog-watching, finding new favorite coffee shops and doing the NY Times crossword puzzle. She continues to cultivate her love and skills as a pianist and maintains a diverse voice studio. She is a 2019 graduate of Oberlin College and Conservatory, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in French and a Bachelor of Music in Voice. She is a current student of Lorraine Nubar and William McGraw.
Select Credits
OPERATIC ROLES
Gold-Spurs The Cunning Little Vixen Bard Conservatory 2022
Young Woman "Mirrorflores: A Cinematic Opera" Music Academy of the West 2021
Pamina Die Zauberflöte Blooming Voce Institute 2018
Flora Turn of the Screw Oberlin Opera Theater 2018
Susanna Le nozze di Figaro Oberlin Opera Theater 2017
Clori L’Egisto Halifax Summer Opera Festival 2017
Adele (cover) Die Fledermaus BU Tanglewood Opera Intensive 2016
CONCERT & ORATORIO
Eve (upcoming) Haydn's Creation Concerts in the Village 2022
Soprano Soloist Fauré's Requiem Concerts in the Village 2021
Soprano Soloist Stravinsky’s Les Noces Oberlin at Carnegie Hall/Perelman Stage 2019
Soprano Soloist Schubert’s G Major Mass First United Church of Christ, Oberlin 2017
Soprano Soloist Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms Oberlin College Choir 2016
NEW & CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
Soloist Folk Songs Luciano Berio Ad Hoc Sinfonietta 2022
Soprano 1 Letras Para Cantar Angelica Négron Music Academy of the West 2021
Soprano 1 Night Wears Black Juhi Bansal Music Academy of the West 2021
Soprano Soloist Entr’actes & Sappho Fragments Birtwistle Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble 2017 Soprano De Staat Andriesson Bang on a Can Festival 2017
Soprano No Anthem Michael Gordon Bang on a Can Festival 2017
Soprano Soloist Forgive Me, Forget Me Pok Ng Pok Ng Composition Recital 2016
Soprano Soloist Walking the Black Cat Oliver Kwapis Oberlin Composition Recital 2016
Soprano Snow Requiem* Aaron Helgeson Cleveland Art Museum 2015
AWARDS AND COMPETITIONS
Winner Bard Conservatory Concerto Competition 2021
Third Place Winner Opera Guild of Dayton Tri-State Competition 2019
Faustina Hurlbutt Prize Oberlin Conservatory 2019
Pi Kappa Lambda prize for musicianship Oberlin Conservatory 2019
Finalist Oberlin Conservatory Concerto Competition 2018
EDUCATION
Master's of Music Bard Conservatory 2023 (expected)
Bachelors of Music in Vocal Performance Oberlin Conservatory of Music 2019
Bachelors of Art in French Oberlin College 2019
Associate of Arts Bard College 2014