About Catherine
Music is the main component of my professional life. I am and always have been a performer. I am also an academic, a teacher, composer, conductor, creative artist, entrepreneur, philosopher, and healer. One thing I have discovered is that I was meant to live many lives. Each piece of my professional life enriches the others, and my whole life is a movement toward greater harmony. Part of my mission in life is to revitalize chamber music, and specifically vocal chamber music, as an art form. Truly collaborative music making inspires me, and as a performer, teacher, composer and organizer, I strive to celebrate this wonderful tradition, educate current and future audiences and performers, and create more works in this genre to ensure it continues to be relevant and vibrant. I am also highly interested in building cooperative networks of musicians and music lovers, motivated by the philosophy that sharing talents, knowledge, and audience builds a healthier community for all of us.
As a singer, I have worked with professional ensembles including the Kallisto Trio, Windsong Trio, and the Vancouver Chamber Choir. I performed regularly with Erato Ensemble and was co-director from 2006-2013. I enjoy working as an oratorio soloist and guest performer in many local festivals and song series and maintain an active recital schedule with my partner, pianist Rita Attrot. Solo highlights from the recent past include Berio's Folk Songs with Erato's chamber orchestra, the Verdi Requiem and Mendelssohn's Elijah with Summerchor, Schubert and Saint-Saens with the West Coast Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven 9 with the Prince George Symphony Orchestra, Handel's Dixit Dominus, Monteverdi's Gloria, and Carissimi's Jephthe with the Vancouver Chamber Choir and Vancouver Chamber Orchestra.
As an instructor, I teach private voice lessons and offer workshops on a variety of topics, including vocal pedagogy. I am currently accepting a limited number of serious students. Over the past few years, I have also become active as a composer and arranger. I compose and arrange for a variety of forces and have been busy with many collaborations and commissions- especially choral pieces- over the past years.
At the end of 2012, I established a monthly concert series in the parlour of the Roedde House Museum- one Sunday per month at 4PM in Vancouver's West End. We are now in our 5th season, and I have become the official Artistic Director of the Roedde House Classical Concert Series, which features talented local musicians in a casual, interactive format. We have incredible support from donors, patrons and artists alike, and the vision of the series continues to expand.
Much change has occurred over the past few years. I retired as a professional choral singer in order to devote more time to performance as a soloist and more energy to composing for choirs. In the first half of 2015, I completed a conducting mentorship with Morna Edmundson and Elektra Women's Choir, in September 2015, I traveled to Edmonton to sing with Pro Coro and study under Michael Zaugg, and in October of 2015, I produced a series of concerts commemorating the end of WWII with German and American artists from Elysium, between two continents. In 2017, I became an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre and started a graduate degree in musicology at the University of British Columbia.