Kate Stringer

Doctoral Student

Kate Stringer is a PhD student and RCM Studentship recipient whose practice-led dissertation project explores the ways in which trauma experienced in music college settings can affect performing artists' development.

Kate earned her Master of Music in Musicology from Boston University in 2013 with a thesis focussed on issues relating to Austro-German identity and politics in Korngold's Die tote Stadt. Her teaching and guest lecture engagements have included Boston University, College of the Holy Cross, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Before relocating to the UK to begin her doctoral studies, Kate worked in various capacities in higher education in Massachusetts, including at Boston University’s music library and archival research centre, as well as at MIT Open Learning. A versatile mezzo-soprano specialising in musical theatre and jazz styles, she also regularly performed as a cabaret artist in the US.

Kate’s varied musical and theatrical career has also seen her credited as an actress, stage director, stage manager, playwright, and lyricist, music critic and journalist. She has performed across the United States and in Europe, including as an ensemble member in a performance of Verdi's Requiem at the former concentration camp in Terezìn, Czech Republic, a concert that formed the basis of the 2012 documentary film Defiant Requiem.

Publications

Stringer K (2018), Interpreting dreams: Korngold’s ‘Pierrot-Lied’ in perspective, in FJ Schopf (ed.) Music on Stage Volume III (pp. 110-127), Cambridge Scholars Publishing [LINK].

Faculties / departments: Research