soprano
KATHERINE LERNER LEE
Upcoming Performances
Legacy Concerts
Katherine performs select songs from Chopin's 19 Polish Songs, op. 34
Katherine joins former teacher, longtime mentor and friend Cristina Altamura in a concert presented by Legacy Arts International. The concert includes songs of Chopin, Rachmaninoff as well as piano literature by both composers. The concert fundraises for one of Cristina's initiatives, the All-Abilities Project.
Sept 24/4pm
Princeton United Methodist Church
Five Songs on the Behavior of Light
Katherine performs Max Esformes' 2023 work for soprano and ensemble.
Katherine performs Maxime Esformes' song cycle alongside instrumentalists of the SUNY Stony Brook Contemporary Music Ensemble, conducted by Daniel Weymouth.
sept 28/7:30pm
SUNY Stony Brook
Saltwater Lung
Katherine performs the premiere of JL Marlor's work for orchestra and three voices.
Alongside Perri Di Cristina and Catherine McClure, Katherine performs the world premiere of JL Marlor's orchestral work, Saltwater Lung. Katherine performed in the premiere of Marlor's chamber opera, The Final Veil in 2022 and sang the workshop of Saltwater Lung earlier this year. The piece will be premiered at Mannes School of Music, admission is free and open to the public.
sept 29/7:30pm
John L. Tishman Auditorium
Recent Appearances
Henry VIII (chorus)
Katherine performs in the chorus of Camille Saint-Saëns lesser known opera, Henry VII with Bard Summerscape.
Henri VIII is French grand opera at its most magnificent. In this love triangle for the ages, an infamous Tudor king is determined to divorce Catherine of Aragon in favor of the ambitious, beautiful Anne Boleyn. Saint-Saëns’s exquisite vocal passages and rich orchestration bring this rarely performed masterpiece to vivid life in this captivating new production.
Sung in French with English supertitles.
Jean-Romain Vesperini, director
Leon Botstein, conductor
with the American Symphony Orchestra
July 21st - 30th
Fisher Center at Bard, Sosnoff Theater
Bard Music Festival
Katherine performs songs of Elizabeth Maconchy, Peter Warlock and Roger Quilter alongside pianist Kayo Iwama during Bard Music Festival's 33rd season.
Program Four traces the evolution of a uniquely British sound through songs by the once-hugely-popular Maude Valérie White, Liza Lehrmann, and Roger Quilter; tragic figures George Butterworth and Ivor Gurney; occult-obsessed Peter Warlock; BBC music director Arthur Bliss; Vaughan Williams’s woefully underrated students Elizabeth Maconchy and Ina Boyle; and scions of the next generation Benjamin Britten and Gerald Finzi, whose Shakespearean song cycle, Let Us Garlands Bring, was written as a gift to the older composer. Vaughan Williams himself is represented by settings of verse by poets including his second wife, Ursula.
10am performance with commentary by Byron Adams; with Tyler Duncan, baritone; Maximillian Jansen, tenor; Katherine Lerner Lee, soprano; Hailey McAvoy, mezzo-soprano; Kayo Iwama and Erika Switzer, piano - Bard.edu
August 6th / 10am
Olin Hall, Bard College
Millbrook, NY
An Afternoon Recital
Together with pianist Nomin Samdan, Katherine presents a private recital of Grieg, Copland, Bacon, Ricky Ian Gordon and Obradors. The recital is presented in conjunction with the Stissing Center in Hyde Park, NY.
May 29th // 4pm
Messiaen's Poèmes Pour Mi
Symphony Space
2537 Broadway, NY
As the 2021-2022 Vocalist Concerto winner at Bard Conservatory, Katherine performs Olivier Messiaen's 1937 song cycle Poèmes Pour Mi. She joins Bard's The Orchestra Now under the baton of Zachary Schwartzman at New York City's Symphony Space.
May 14 // 4pm
Bard Conservatory Performance Space
30 Campus Rd, Annandale-On-Hudson, NY 12504
Graduate Recital
Katherine performs her graduate recital, a culminating work for her studies as a Masters candidate at Bard Conservatory. She collaborates with pianist, Nomin Samdan. The program includes Grieg's Haugtussa, op. 67 and George Crumb's Apparition.
Apr 16th // 8pm
Schumann's Liederkreis, op. 39
Hyde Park, NY
As part of benefit concert presented by pianist, Michael Skelly, Katherine will perform Schumann's exquisite Liederkreis, op. 39 alongside baritone and friend, Jonathan Lawlor. They duo will also perform "Gruß" from Mendelssohnn's Op. 6 duets as well as a duet from Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe.
Apr 2 // 5pm
Musto's Shadow of the Blues
Sosnoff Theater
Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
Katherine joins conductor Colin Roshak and The Orchestra Now on the stage of the Fisher Center. She performs John Musto's Shadow of the Blues, settings of Langston Hughes. This will be the premiere of the complete orchestral arrangements of these beloved songs.
Mar 19th // 3pm
"Leila" in Iolanthe
Sosnoff Theater
Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
Katherine joins her Bard VAP colleagues in a concert production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe, in which she sings the role of Leila. This production will be conducted by Maestro James Bagwell, leading The Orchestra Now.
Mar 4th // 7pm
Mar 5th // 2pm
Kurtag Festival
Conservatory Performance Space
Laszlo Bito Conservatory
Katherine stepped in last moment to perform the second book in Gyorgy Kurtag's "Messages from the Late R.V. Troussova" with instrumnetalists from Bard College and Conservatory, conducted by Benjamin Hochman.
Feb. 25th // 3pm
Beattie Powers on Main
10 Powers Pl, Catskill, NY 12414, USA
Schumann's Myrthen Lieder
Katherine joins her Bard VAP colleagues in a house concert presenting Schumann's Myrthen Lieder alongside songs of Wolf and Schubert. Katherine performs "Widmung" and "Freisinn" with collaborator, Nhi Huynh.
Feb. 5th // 3pm
Holiday Concert
Henry A. Wallace Visitor and Education Center
4079 Albany Post Rd, Hyde Park, NY 12538
Katherine performs "Agathe" in a scene from Weber's Die Freischütz and "Gretel" in Humperdinck's famous "Abendsegen" from Hansel und Gretel in a special concert featuring Bard Conservatory musicians. She sings alongside colleague, Francesca Lionetta.
Dec 10th // 4pm
Let it be forgotten: shades of American identity
Church of the Messiah
6436 Montgomery St, Rhinebeck, NY 12572
Let it be forgotten will be presented as an afternoon vocal chamber music recital at the Church of the Messiah in Rhinebeck. The program, co-curated and developed with four Bard colleagues, explores what it means to find yourself in America or to desire to be here and highlights the different conflicts we may have with American heritage. Focusing on the stories of American immigrants, the program features music of Juhi Bansal, Bright Sheng, Charles Ives, Rosephanye Powell and others, and will be sung in English, Yiddish and Chinese.
Dec 4th // 4pm
Songs of Weimar Cabaret
Sosnoff Theater
Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
Katherine performs alongside her Bard VAP colleagues in an evening of cabaret songs from Weimar, Germany. Katherine will sing "Johnny, wenn du Geburtstag hast," by Friederich Hollaender with Nhi Huynh, pianist.
Nov 19 // 8pm
Haydn's Creation
Kinderhook Reformed Church
21 Broad Street // Kinderhook, NY
Katherine sings the role of Eve in Haydn's oratorio Creation. This is her second appearance with the Broad Street Orchestra, under the baton of David Smith.
Nov 13th // 3pm
Saariaho's Tempest Songbook
Conservatory Performance Space
Laszlo Bito Conservatory
Katherine performs Kaija Saariaho's Tempest Songbook with baritone, Jonathan Lawlor, conducted by Colin Roshak. The song cycle takes texts from Shakespeare's 1610 play and runs about 20 minutes.This concert is a continuation of the Bard Sinfonietta Project.
Nov 6 // 3pm
The Final Veil
The Cell Theater
338 W 23rd // Manhattan
Katherine performs in the world premiere of The Final Veil, a movement based opera created by director, Cassandra Rosebeetle and composer, JL Marlor. The piece follows the story of Franceska Mann, a Polish dancer who was interned at Auschwitz and performed a striptease in order to distract the Nazi soldiers. She has become a symbol of strength and resistance.
July 13 - 31
L'histoire du soldat
CPS
Bard Laszlo Bito Conservatory
Katherine performs the role of Narrator in Stravinsky's, L'histoire du soldat alongside musicians of the Bard Conservatory. This performance will be the second in a weekend of inaugural concertsfor the Bard Sinfonietta Project.
Conductor: Colin Roshak Joy Kuo, Violin David Kidd, Trumpet TromboneDirector/Devil: Sadie Spivey Juan Martinez, Clarinet Ben Halle, Bass
Soldier: Teryn Kuzma HanYi Huang, Bassoon Emrys Lawrie, Choreographer/Princess: Isabella Spagnuolo Juan Diego Mora Rubio, Percussion
May 21 // 7pm
A Spring Recital
Christ Church Episcopal
7423 S Broadway, Red Hook NY 12571
In collaboration with pianist, Diana Borshcheva and clarinetist, Colin Roshak, Katherine presents a recital celebrating and exploring her Jewish heritage. Program to include works by Lazar Weiner, Ravel, Lori Laitman and selections from the Great American Songbook. Tickets: $5 at the door.
April 10 // 7pm
Student Composer Showcase
Bard Chapel
1387 Annandale Rd // Annandale-On-Hudson
Katherine performs the world premiere of Zeke's Morgan's Looking at the Sky, commissioned for an evening of student composer work's at Bard Conservatory through the Bard Sinfonietta Project. The rest of the program highlights the many skilled composers of the Bard Composition department and is part of an initiative of collaborative partner, Colin Roshak, to create an ensemble devoted to the development and promotion of new works. Free admission.
May 20 // 8pm
Beauty Intolerable
FDR Memorial Center
4097 Albany Post Rd // Hyde Park
Katherine will perform "Aubade" from Sheila Silver's song-cycle, Beauty Intolerable alongside her Bard peers. The song cycle takes its texts from the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay and runs about an hour long. The performance will be the inaugural concert played on Eleanor Roosevelt's recently restored piano.
April 27 // 6pm
Berio's "Folk Songs"
CPS
Bard Laszlo Bito Conservatory
Under the baton of good friend and collaborative partner, Colin Roshak, Katherine performs the Berio Folksongs in Bard's Conservatory Performance Space in the Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Conservatory Building with members of the Bard Conservatory Orchestra, as well as The Orchestra Now.
Dec 17 // 6:30pm