Kathy Kessler Price, (M.M., Ph.D.), soprano and Professor of Voice at Westminster Choir College of Rider University, teaches voice pedagogy courses and applied voice and also directs both the Presser Voice Laboratory and the summer Westminster Voice Pedagogy Institute. In 2018 she was awarded the Rider University’s Distinguished Teacher of the Year.
A native of Richmond, Virginia, she earned her Bachelor’s Degree at The University of Richmond in voice performance and music education, her Masters of Voice Performance from The University of Maryland (College Park), and her Ph.D. in Voice Pedagogy from The University of Kansas. She previously served as Voice Area Coordinator and Assistant Professor of Music at Mississippi State University, coordinated the Vocology Laboratory at The University of Kansas, and worked as an intern in Clinical Voice Assessment at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Additionally, Dr. Price has taught voice and diction at William Jewell College in Missouri and at Northern Virginia Community College (Alexandria Campus) where she also served as choral director. She is a founding member of the Washington Vocal Consortium, and conducts the acclaimed D.C. women’s ensemble Philomela, whose most recent recording celebrates music for children.
Dr. Price has performed as soprano soloist at The Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall, The National Museum for Women in the Arts, in a solo concert tour of the Czech Republic, and she has sung and conducted at The White House. She has been a frequent performer at the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Washington, D.C. Her opera/operetta roles include the title roles of The Merry Widow, Naughty Marietta, The Bartered Bride, and Rusalka as well as principal roles in Mozart’s The Impresario, Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, and Larsen’s A Wrinkle in Time, among others. For twelve years she sang in the opera chorus of The Washington National Opera, six of which were under the direction of Placido Domingo. On several occasions, Dr. Price has enjoyed being a guest artist and Master Class clinician at The Academy of the Arts in Osejik and Zagreb, Croatia. She has frequently adjudicated the Lav Mirski International Voice Competition and hosted faculty from Osejik at Westminster. Dr. Price served as a soloist and clinician at the Festival Internacional de Música de Campina Grande in Brazil, and has participated as a distance guest lecturer and judge for numerous musical events in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Azerbaijan.
Her current research interests include lifespan female singing voices focusing on menopausal vocal transitions, the aging voice, voice assessment procedures for colleges and universities, primary voice transitions in male and female voices singing in both Classical and Musical Theater styles, historical vocal pedagogy with particular emphasis on female pedagogues, and the role of voice teachers in interdisciplinary voice habilitation and rehabilitation. She has presented numerous times at the Voice Foundation Symposiums, National Association of Teachers of Singing Conventions, International Physiology and Acoustics of Singing Conference, the Phenomenon of Singing International Conferences, the Music Educators Association National Conferences, and various regional and state chapters of the American Choral Directors Association. Her writings have been published in the Journal of Research in Music Education, The International Journal of Research in Choral Singing, and the NATS Journal of Singing. She co-authored the books The Anatomy of Tone and Intonational Solfege, and contributed a “recipe” to The Voice Teacher’s Cookbook.
Dr. Price was awarded a research fellowship at The University of Kansas and was one of two national recipients in 2010 of the National Association of Teachers of Singing Vocal Pedagogy Award. She has served in numerous roles for the National Association of Teachers of Singing on national and state levels, and Dr. Price is currently the Governor of New Jersey NATS. Other honors include Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron Delta Kappa, Mortar Board, and Sigma Alpha Iota.
She counts among her greatest joys the opportunity to teach and mentor her wonderful students at Westminster Choir College/Rider University. Her students perform opera/art song/musical theatre and present voice research in national and international venues, and they teach new generations of singers to carry forward the legacy of beautiful music-making and story-telling through song.