Short bio
American vocalist Katherine Goforth shares the “thrilling tenor power” (Opera News) of her “noble, colorful and iridescent vocal sound” (Magazin Klassik) in vivid character portraits and heartfelt performances that “[do] not hold back” (The New York Times). A transgender woman, Katherine is undeterred by historical barriers in the performing arts and is finding new ways to show up authentically on stage, in the rehearsal room, and as a creative artist.
Katherine is the recipient of Washington National Opera’s inaugural True Voice Award for transgender and non-binary singers and the Career Advancement Award from the fourth Dallas Symphony Orchestra Women in Classical Music Symposium. She won critical acclaim as part of the cast that premiered Philip Venables and Ted Huffman’s The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions at Manchester International Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and Bregenzer Festspiele. Based in Portland, OR, she has appeared extensively as a soloist with Pacific Northwest-based arts organizations, including Portland Opera, Bozeman Symphony, Walla Walla Symphony, Yakima Symphony, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Opera Bend, Harmonia Seattle, Opera Theater Oregon, Sound Salon (formerly Byron Schenkman and Friends), Ping and Woof Opera, Artists Repertory Theatre, Fuse Theatre Ensemble, and Pink Martini.
Equally at home as a creative artist, Katherine was most recently part of the team that developed and produced Nu Nah-Hup: Sacajawea’s Story, a collaboration with Rose Ann Abrahamson, Sacajawea’s familial descendant, Hovia Edwards, Native American flutist, and Justin Ralls, composer and artistic director of Opera Theater Oregon, starring mezzo soprano Marion Newman and baritone Richard Zeller. She has written for Opera Canada, and spoken at Boston Conservatory, Whitman College, Renegade Opera, the Beyond Travesti podcast, and the League of American Orchestras Anne Parsons Leadership Program. She is a member of the Beth Morrison Projects Producer Academy 2023 Cohort.
Katherine was a member of the International Opera Studio of Oper Köln, received her Bachelor’s degree from St. Olaf College, her Master’s degree from the Juilliard School, and attended the Franz-Schubert-Institut, Britten Pears Young Artist Programme, Heidelberger Frühling Liedakademie, Georg Solti Accademia, and Boston Wagner Institute.
Long Bio
American vocalist Katherine Goforth shares her “noble, colorful and iridescent vocal sound” (Magazin Klassik) in strong and heartfelt performances. “Goforth… does not hold back," (The New York Times) offering vivid character portraits sung with the utmost commitment and finesse.
On Transgender Day of Visibility (March 31) in 2023, Goforth was announced by Washington National Opera as the recipient of the inaugural True Voice Award, an award created by librettist Kimberly Reed, composer Laura Kaminsky and librettist Mark Campbell (the creative team behind the opera As One) to increase the visibility of transgender and non-binary opera singers. As part of the award, Goforth will give a recital on Washington National Opera’s Millennium Stage in May 2024.
Goforth was also the recipient of the Career Advancement Award at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s fourth Women in Classical Music Symposium. At the Symposium, she gave a joint recital with Julia Bullock, who nominated her for the award, appeared on a panel entitled “The Burden of Breaking Through” with composer Angélica Negrón and conductor Sarah Ioannides and offered remarks at the keynote event.
Katherine participated in the 2023 Beth Morrison Projects Producer Academy, a Mellon Foundation-supported course designed to identify and mentor the next generation of creative producers. She joined an international cohorts of artists to learn from faculty including Beth Morrison, Sam Linden, Carlos Diaz Stoop and guest lecturers like Paula Prestini, Susan Feder, and Andrew Ousley.
Goforth has been active in advocating for the self-determination of trans (and non-trans) people. A member of the Trans Opera Alliance, she has lectured for Renegade Opera, published an essay in Opera Canada Magazine, been quoted in Opera America Magazine, spoken with master’s voice students at New England Conservatory, and had residencies at Boston Conservatory, where she spoke on panel discussions about the experience of transgender singers with Mark Campbell, Laura Kaminsky, Kimberly Reed, and Kayla Gautereaux, and at Whitman College, where she led a public conversation with the Whitman Choir and performed the tenor solo in Marianna Martines’ Dixit Dominus with conductor Dr. Joseph Kemper.
Goforth is also involved in the creation of new operatic work, currently serving as dramaturg and stage director for Opera Theater Oregon’s Nu Nah-Hup, an operatic work telling the story of Sacajawea from an Agai-Dika perspective in collaboration with Rose Ann Abrahamson, great-great-grandniece of Sacajawea and Agai-Dika culture bearer, flutist Hovia Edwards, and composer Justin Ralls. Support for the project has included a $100,000 Creative Heights Grant from the Oregon Community Foundation and a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment of the Arts. Nu Nah-Hup will have its workshop premiere on May 13 and 14, 2023.
In Summer 2023, Goforth appeared in the ensemble cast of Philip Venables and Ted Huffman’s The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions (based on Larry Mitchell’s 1977 novel of the same name with illustrations by Ned Asta) during Summer 2023 at Manchester International Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and Bregenzer Festspiele, earning reviews that praised her “vocal beauty” (New York Times) and “thrilling tenor power” (Opera News). Other recent performances have included Beppe in Pagliacci with Opera Bend in an innovative production that reimagined Beppe as a female character, “Expansive: A Showcase for Transgender & Non-Binary Classical Artists,” a concert presented by Opera Parallèle and The Transgender District in San Francisco, and Lukas (tenor solo) in Haydn’s The Seasons with Harmonia Seattle, as well as a recital for the Boston Wagner Society.
Goforth has sung the tenor solo in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Bozeman Symphony, Walla Walla Symphony, and Yakima Symphony, the tenor solo in Puccini’s Messa di Gloria with Vancouver Symphony (USA), Elisabeth Claude Jacquet de la Guerre’s Ester with Byron Schenkman, Spoletta in Tosca with Portland Opera, two work premieres for Seattle Opera’s Jane Lang Davis Creation Lab, Rodolfo in La boheme with Ping and Woof Opera, the tenor solo in Mozart’s Reqiuem with St. Thomas Episcopal Church Medina, and the tenor solo in Bruckner’s Requiem with First Unitarian Church of Portland. Outside of classical music, Goforth made appearances in straight plays as Rebbetzin Tzurris in a reading of Dan Kitrosser’s Why This Night for Artists Repertory Theatre and as Emily Webb in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town for Fuse Theatre Ensemble.
Goforth was a member of the International Opera Studio of Opera Köln for the 2018-19 season, singing 3rd Jew in Salome, Il Conte di Bandiera in La scuola de’ gelosi, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte for the Kinderoper, and covering Jaquino in Fidelio and Rev. Horace Adams in Peter Grimes. Of these performances, The German Stage noted that Katherine was “stunningly charming,” the General-Anzeiger wrote that her “tenor projects clearly… (and her) piano passages reveal lyric qualities as well,” and Opern Magazin stated that she “rose to the highest form.” She received her Bachelor’s degree from St. Olaf College and her Master’s degree from The Juilliard School, and also attended the Franz Schubert Institut, Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, Heidelberger Frühling Liedakademie, Georg Solti Accademia, and Boston Wagner Institute.
Goforth is an Instructor of Voice at Reed College in Portland, OR, and Clark College in Vancouver, WA. In Summer 2022, she was a guest instructor at the German language immersion school, Deutsche Sommerschule am Pazifik, at Portland State University. She directed a chorus of graduate and undergraduate German studies students and gave a Schubertiade with Wenwen Du.