Kathryn Summersett

Biography

Kathryn Summersett, Doctor of Music and McClosky voice technician, is currently located in the Keweenaw Peninsula of Upper Michigan. She earned her Doctor of Music in Historical Performance from Indiana University, her MM from University of North Texas, and her BM from University of Massachusetts. In 2013, she also became a certified McClosky voice technician, where she teaches technique in both singing and speaking as well as movement and posture.

As a professional singer and educator with a passion for music history, Kathryn actively enjoys performing and teaching a wide variety of genres including, but not limited to, medieval chant, renaissance lute songs, baroque and classical opera, romantic art songs, early 20th century jazz, and modern pop.

Through the years, Kathryn has been a featured soloist at Boston Early Music Festival, Berkeley Early Music Festival, and Bloomington Early Music Festival, as well as with Bloomington Bach Cantata Project and Bach Collegium in Fort Wayne, IN. She was also a featured soloist in the modern premiere of Mexican Solo Cantata Murio por el pecado by Manuel de Sumuya that was broadcast nationwide on National Public Radio in 2014, and subsequent years, and has since frequently soloed mexican baroque and other repertoire in the San Luis Obispo, CA area.

In addition to her solo achievements, Kathryn has directed and produced several staged early music shows including The Purcell Project: A Masque in 2013, Musica Dolce for the Jacobs School of Music EMI and Bloomington Early Music Festival in 2014, and Heaven Versus Earth: A Soul's Moral Predicament in 2015, for the JSOM organ conference. In addition, Kathryn directed the Medieval opera Ordo Virtutum for both Indiana University and the Midwest Medieval Musical Conference.

In 2023 and 2024, Kathryn collaborated with research engineer, Steven Senczyszyn, for Michigan Tech’s Art in Silico, combining human voice with sound filtered through carbon nanotubes speakers, and in 2024 won 2nd place.