Voice Studio
Instructor Biography
Dr. Kari Ragan, soprano, earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 2005 from the University of Washington. Her dissertation The Ballad of Baby Doe: Historical Accuracy and Gender Ideology in the Characterization of August and Baby Doe focused on feminist perspective of Douglas Moore’s 1956 opera. Dr. Ragan’s Bachelor of Music (1987) and Master of Music (1991) degrees in vocal performance were both earned from the prestigious Indiana University School of Music.
In February 2012, Dr. Ragan was the recipient of the Van L. Lawrence Fellowship. This prestigious award is presented jointly by The Voice Foundation and the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS). Her research for this fellowship will be: The Parameters and Utility of Vocal Cool Down Exercises. In 2011, she earned the Wicklund Singing Voice Specialist Certificate and in 2010 the The New York Singing Teachers(NYSTA) Association’s Distinguished Voice Professional Certificate. Dr. Ragan was selected to present at the 51st NATS National Conference on Voice Disorders and the Multidisciplinary Team. In 2009, she was the recipient of the NATS Pedagogy Award. Dr. Ragan’s article, “Intubation Considerations for Singers” was published in the NYSTA’s VOICEPrints in 2010 and the augmented article co-written with anesthesiologist Dr. Kunal Gangopadhyay, will be published in the Journal of Singing in the fall of 2012. Additionally, her article entitled, “The Connected Voice Studio” was published in the Journal of Singing in September 2010.
Dr. Ragan was pleased to join the University of Washington voice faculty in the fall of 2010 where she teaches graduates and undergraduates applied voice, vocal pedagogy, Italian diction and French art song literature. Additionally, she has developed and maintained a thriving and collaborative independent voice studio for over twenty-five years. Although her primary training, performing, and teaching is in the classical genre, she has also specialized in Contemporary Musical Theater (CMT) pedagogy and as a Singing Voice Specialist (SVS), which is a voice teacher with specialized training to help the injured voice. This work is done in association with a team that includes Laryngologists and Speech Language Pathologists (SLP). As a result of her three specialties (classical pedagogy, CMT pedagogy and an SVS) she is frequently sought after as a clinician and adjudicator for workshops and masterclasses throughout the Pacific Northwest. Dr. Ragan is a member of NYSTA, an organizing member of the Northwest Chapter of the Voice Foundation (NWCVF), has served on the board of the Puget Sound Chapter of NATS; and is a member of Northwest Artists.
She had the privilege of studying for many years with the renowned Ellen Faull, Julliard Emeritus. Other teachers include Vinson Cole, international opera star and voice teacher at New England Conservatory, Martial Singher and Martha Lipton. Her coach of over twenty years is maestro Dean Williamson.