Voice Studio
Instructor Biography
Dr. Kari Ragan, soprano, holds a Bachelor and Masters Degree in Music from the prestigious Indiana University School of Music. Her Doctorate of Musical Arts Degree was received in 2005 from the University of Washington where her research focused on feminist perspective of Douglas Moore’s 1956 opera The Ballad of Baby Doe.
She was the 2009 recipient of the National Association of Teachers Singing (NATS) Pedagogy Award and has been selected to present at the 51st NATS National Conference on Voice Disorders and the Multidisciplinary Team. Dr. Ragan will be published in the Journal of Singing and New York Singing Teachers Association (NYSTA) VOICEPrints in 2010. She was recently awarded NYSTA’s Distinguished Voice Professional Certificate. Additionally, Dr. Ragan works as a Singing Voice Specialist (SVS), which is a voice teacher with specialized training to help the injured voice. This work is done is association with a team that includes Laryngologists and Speech Language Pathologists (SLP).
Dr. Ragan has developed and maintained a thriving and collaborative independent voice studio for over twenty-five years and has also served on the faculty at the University of Puget Sound. Although her primary training, performing, and teaching is in the classical genre, she has also specialized in Contemporary Musical Theater (CMT) pedagogy. As a result of these three specialties she is sought after clinician and adjudicator for workshops and masterclasses throughout the Pacific Northwest. Dr. Ragan is a member of New York Singing Teachers Association (NYSTA), an organizing member of the Northwest Chapter of the Voice Foundation(NWCVF), currently serves on the board of the Puget Sound Chapter of the National Association of Teachers Singing and is a member of Northwest Artists.
Dr. Ragan works with a diversity of students including the emerging professional to gifted children, particularly specialzing in preparing the exceptional high school singer with professional aspirations for the collegiate level. Past students have received scholarships to undergraduate and graduate music programs at prestigious colleges such as Indiana University, Cincinatti Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, Oberlin School of Music, University of Arizona, and many others. Furthermore, they continually win adjudications such as NATS, WMEA Solo/Ensemble, PAFE and the Classical Singer National Competition.
Through her private voice studio Dr. Ragan began Eastside Vocal Arts, which presents a summer music workshop for teens in addition to masterclasses and workshops throughout the year. Among past presenters are Dean Williamson, Ross Hauck, Juliana Rambaldi and Victor Benedetti and Robert Edwin.
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; and the remarkable Martial Singher and Martha Lipton. Her coach of over eighteen years is maestro Dean Williamson, conductor and Artistic Director of Cleveland Opera.