Short bio (100 words)
Katherine Goforth is a classically trained performer, writer, and composer. Performance credits: The Kennedy Center, Manchester International Festival, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Bregenzer Festspiele, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra's Women In Classical Music Symposium, Stanford Live, the Chan National Queer Arts Center, Trinity Church NYC.
Katherine is featured in Brit Fryer and Lydia Cornett's documentary film Tessitura. Recent speaking engagements included a panel at Opera America National Conference, Stanford’s Queer Student Resource, and the League of American Orchestras' Anne Parsons Leadership Program. Based in Portland, OR, she develops new work with Ben Landsverk and Claire Forstman. katherinegoforth.com @g0furtherr
Medium bio (200 words)
Katherine Goforth shares the “thrilling power” (Opera News) of her voice in heartfelt performances that “[do] not hold back” (The New York Times). Credits: Where Would We Be Without Defeat, a solo show for Stanford Live, March Madness, with Nikola Printz and friends at the National Queer Arts Center (SF), The F*****s and Their Friends Between Revolutions (Venables/Huffman) at Manchester International Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and Bregenzer Festspiele, the tenor solo in Das Lied von der Erde (Mahler) with 45th Parallel Orchestra, Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Harmonia Seattle, female character adaptations of Alfredo in La Traviata at Opera Bend and the Journalist in The Breasts of Tiresias at Hogfish, and recital performances with Boston Wagner Society and Opera Parallèle. Katherine received Washington National Opera’s inaugural True Voice Award, giving a recital at the Kennedy Center, and the Career Advancement Award from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra Women in Classical Music Symposium, giving a joint recital with Julia Bullock at Meyerson Symphony Center. She is featured in Brit Fryer and Lydia Cornett's documentary Tessitura alongside Breanna Sinclairé and Lucas Bouk. Recent speaking engagements included a panel at Opera America Conference 2024 and League of American Orchestras’ Anne Parsons Leadership Program. Connect with Katherine: katherinegoforth.com @g0furtherr
Complete bio
American vocalist and creator 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 finds new ways to show up authentically on stage, in the rehearsal room, and as a creative artist across artistic disciplines.
Recognized for her exceptional singing as much as for her dedication to creating change, Katherine received Washington National Opera’s inaugural True Voice Award for transgender and non-binary singers, performing and speaking at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage with pianist Christopher Cano in celebration of the award. Katherine also received the Career Advancement Award from the fourth Dallas Symphony Orchestra Women in Classical Music Symposium, nominated by Julia Bullock. Katherine gave a joint recital performance with Bullock, appeared in a panel discussion entitled “The Burden of Breaking Through” with composer Angélica Negrón and conductor Sarah Ioannides, and offered remarks at the keynote event.
Katherine advocacy for transgender liberation has included op-eds for Opera Canada and Art Grove Newsletter, panels as at Opera America National Conference 2024, Boston Conservatory with Kimberly Reed, Laura Kaminsky, Mark Campbell and Kayla Gautereaux, New England Conservatory with Jane Eaglen, Stanford Queer Student Resource with Susan Stryker, Whitman College with Dr. Joseph Kemper, speaking for Renegade Opera, and an appearance on the Beyond Travesti podcast. Katherine was a faculty mentor for the League of American Orchestras Anne Parsons Leadership Program in 2023 and will return in 2025.
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, with Joshua Barone of The New York Times writing, “Venable’s score is at its most patient showcasing the vocal beauty of … Katherine Goforth,” Stephen J. Mudge of Opera News writing, “In a year where fresh young voices have been somewhat lacking in the big festival productions, it was good to hear … the thrilling tenor power of Katherine Goforth,” Florence Lethurgez of Olyrix writing, “Katherine Goforth brings her full-bodied, sharp and powerful [tenor] in a rare lyrical appearance, the keystone of the whole ensemble,” and Rahul Gandolahage writing for NRC, “The trans woman Katherine Goforth seems shy in the first half, but unpacks herself in the second half: literally in a bare bodysuit, figuratively in a banging furious [tenor]. It's a moving thought that not even the biggest homophobe or queerphobe could argue that these people were singled out solely for their queer identity. They are musical mega-talents.”
Upcoming, she will sing solos written for her in the premiere of Andrew Yee’s Trans Requiem at Trinity Church NYC with the NOVUS new music orchestra. Later this season, she will sing the tenor solo in Mozart’s Requiem with Auburn Symphony Orchestra and Seattle Pro Musica.
Katherine’s recent work in classical music has included Where Would We Be Without Defeat, a multimedia recital exploring the German radical tradition in the 20th century with pianist Claire Forstman that was commissioned by and premiered at Stanford Live (Stanford University), and performances of Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Harmonia Orchestra and conductor William White (Seattle), and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with 45th Parallel Orchestra (Portland, OR). She also appeared in Nikola Printz’s boundary-crossing show March Madness for the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus at their Chan National Queer Arts Center. The show featured Robert Mollicone as pianist and music director, as well as drag queen Polly Amber Ross, flutist Jessie Nucho, and a house band.
She sang the tenor solo in Beethoven’s Symphony #9 and the tenor solo in Puccini’s Messa di Gloria with Vancouver Symphony (WA), both with conductor Salvador Brotans, the tenor solo (Lukas) in Haydn’s The Seasons with Harmonia Orchestra and conductor William White, solos from cantatas and oratorio in St. Thomas Medina’s “Bach’s Birthday Bash” (Seattle) with organist Dr. Paul Meier, the tenor solo (Uriel) in Classical Concerts Against Gun Violence’s performance of Haydn’s The Creation (Seattle) with conductors Linda Gingrich, Michael McKenzie, Julia Tai, and Karen Thomas and pianist David McDade, appeared in recital at Opera Parallèle’s Expansive with Ahya Simone, Nikola Printz, emcee Afrika America and pianist Taylor Chan, a concert celebrating transgender and non-binary artists, and gave a solo recital for Boston Wagner Society entitled “Wagner As A Bridge,” exploring the radical aspects of Wagner’s political thought and its social impact.
Her past performances also include the tenor solo in Beethoven’s Symphony #9 with Bozeman Symphony and conductor Norman Huynh, Walla Walla Symphony and conductor Yaacov Bergman, and Yakima Symphony, Elisabeth Claude Jacquet de la Guerre’s Ester with Byron Schenkman, Spoletta in Tosca with Portland Opera, roles in 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 with conductor DeReau K. Farrar.
While most opera companies continue to restrict their casting of transgender women to male roles, Katherine has worked to create new models for inclusion. She appeared with Opera Bend in an adaptation of La traviata that re-imagined Alfredo as a transgender woman and her rupture with her father as a result of Germont’s transphobia, as well as productions of Pagliacci with Opera Bend, The Breasts of Tiresias with Hogfish (Portland, ME), and Roméo et Juliette with Portland Opera Community Outreach that imagined Beppe, The Journalist, and Roméo as female characters.
In Portland, Katherine has worked with Opera Theater Oregon to develop and produce new operatic work. Most recently, she was 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. Katherine was a creative consultant, co-authored the libretto, and stage directed the workshop performance. The premiere, at Portland Opera’s Hampton Opera Center, starred mezzo soprano Marion Newman and baritone Richard Zeller. Support for the project has included the Creative Heights Grant from the Oregon Community Foundation. Previously she was part of developing Climate of Guilt (cancelled due to the pandemic), which was to have featured a new Ralls opera, consulted on the premiere of Ralls’ Two Yosemites, and co-curated and stage directed World War One: A Song-Opera of Remembrance, a piece of music-theatre for three singers and instrumental ensemble that told a human story about the First World War through the music of composers who experienced the war firsthand.
In addition to looking for ways to transform production practices in classical music, Katherine has carried her artistry with her across discipline. She appeared as Emily Webb and Mrs. Gibbs in Our Town as part of Fuse Theatre Ensemble’s “Queering the Canon” series, and read Rebbetzin Tzurris in Dan Kitrosser’s Why This Night for Artists Repertory Theatre’s Mercury Festival.
Katherine is featured in Brit Fryer and Lydia Cornett’s documentary Tessitura alongside Breanna Sinclairé, Lucas Bouk, and Dr. Naomi André. Katherine traveled to Mountainfilm Festival in Telluride, CO, where she sang and spoke alongside showings of the film. Tessitura won the Best Documentary Short award at Mountainfilm, and is an Oscar-award-eligible film.
She joined the 2023 Beth Morrison Projects Producer Academy, a Mellon Foundation-supported course designed to identify and mentor the next generation of creative producers, with an international cohorts of artists and faculty including Beth Morrison, Sam Linden, Carlos Diaz Stoop and guest lecturers like Paula Prestini, Susan Feder, and Andrew Ousley.
As political repression against transgender people has intensified, Katherine has increasingly performed outside of traditional classical music spaces. She appeared as a soloist and guest clinician at Queer Choir Collective’s first Sing the Body Festival (Eugene, OR). She was an artist in residence at Mendelssohn’sPDX, a bar that Esquire called “one of the best in America,” performing with pianist Claire Forstman and multi-instrumentalist Ben Landsverk. She has also appeared as a soloist with Landsverk’s Low Bar Chorale.
Upcoming, she will start producing a monthly solo show at Fuse Theatre Ensemble, where she is an ensemble member, where she will workshop future performances and newly composed lyrics and music. She will also attend the Desert Playwright’s Residency in Palm Springs, CA, a semiannual playwriting residency for queer artists.
Katherine was a member of the International Opera Studio of Opera Köln for the 2018-19 season, where she sang 3rd Jew in Salome with director Ted Huffman and conductor François-Xavier Roth, Il Conte di Bandiera in La scuola de’ gelosi with director Jean Rensahw and conductor Arnaud Arbet, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte for the Kinderoper with director Brigitte Gillessen and conductors Rainer Mühlbach and Samuel Hogarth, and covered Jaquino in Fidelio and Rev. Horace Adams in Peter Grimes. She also appeared in the “Fest der Schönen Stimmen” and many private performances with the Opera Studio. Of these performances, Die Deutsche Bühne 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.”
Katherine 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. The master classes she sang in were taught by singers and pianists including Ben Heppner, Jane Eaglen, Thomas Hampson, Thomas Quasthoff, José van Dam, Neil Shicoff, Ian Bostridge, Elly Ameling, Christoph Prégardien, Robert Holl, Ann Murray, Mariella Devia, Luciana Serra, Jonathan Papp, Julius Drake, Helmut Deutsch, Rudolf Jansen, Roger Vignoles, Wolfram Rieger, Malcolm Martineau.
Katherine is an Instructor of Voice at Clark College in Vancouver, WA. Previously, she was Instructor of Voice at Reed College. In Summer 2022, she was a guest instructor at the German language immersion school, Deutsche Sommerschule am Pazifik, at Portland State University. She taught music in German, directing a chorus of graduate and undergraduate German studies students, and gave a Schubertiade with pianist Wenwen Du.
Katherine is a member of AGMA, MusicPortland, Portland Music Producers, and the Portland Synth Library.