Adjunct Instructor of Music Concert Choir, Keyboard Competency
Keyboard Competency, Keyboard Pedagogy, Musicianship, Arranging

An enthusiast for classical, jazz, and contemporary music, Kathleen Ann Theisen trained as a classical and jazz pianist before turning to opera. An active workshop clinician, she presented a workshop at the 2007 CSMTA state convention about preparing students for a lifetime of playing for pleasure and presented several workshops for the Schubert Club of Fairfield County in the Fall of 2007. Theisen earned the B.Mus.(Piano) magna cum laude from the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point and the M. Mus. (Piano Performance and Piano Pedagogy) summa cum laude from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has done additional graduate work in piano at the University of Michigan. She holds national professional certification (piano) through the Music Teachers National Association and Music (K-12) certification through the Connecticut Department of Education. She has been teaching piano and voice for 19 years and has taught piano and voice lessons in Greenwich, Connecticut since 2003. She has been an Adjunct Instructor of Piano at Western Connecticut State University since 2007. Theisen has also been on faculty at the “llinois Summer Youth Music” piano camp at the University of Illinois, Walnut Hill Summer Theatre School, Madison (WI) Country Day School, Wausau (WI) Conservatory of Music, Greenwich (CT) Public Schools and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Piano Project. For four years, she served as Director of Choral Activities at the Dana Hall School in Wellesley, Massachusetts, where her Chamber Singers had the distinction of being the only high school choir invited to perform at the Harvard Festival of Collegiate Womens' Choirs in April of 2002. She spent many years playing clubs in the Midwest and has composed classical, pop, rock and jazz music (and even a polka!). She received the Wisconsin Music Teachers Association Award of Excellence in 1992 and 1994 in recognition of her piano teaching.

Movie credits: piano teacher for Elle Fanning in the movie, "Reservation Road” (2007).

Publications: Keyboard Companion magazine (2001).

Vocal Performances: In 2003, she made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera as an extra chorister in "Benvenuto Cellini." Recent orchestral engagements include: Beethoven Ninth Symphony (soprano solo), Norwalk Symphony, May 2008; the American premiere of “Ah, seek to know” by JC Bach, from a new edition by Ben Woodward, with New England Baroque Soloists, the world premiere of Carlos Castañeda, Jr.’s “I Should Be Speechless” with chamber players from One World Symphony and Merab in Handel’s "Saul" with One World Symphony. Recent opera roles: Donna Anna in "Don Giovanni" with Taconic Opera, Vitellia in "La Clemenza di Tito" with dell’Arte Opera Ensemble, Cleopatra in "Giulio Cesare" with One World Symphony, Daphne in the New York premiere of Robert Ward’s "Claudia Legare" at Dicapo Opera - for which Opera News wrote that she was “vocally solid and impassioned” and The New York Times said she “effectively conveyed a sense of desperation,” Countess Ceprano in "Rigoletto" (Connecticut Grand Opera); Woglinde in "Das Rheingold" (Rheingold Project, NY City); seven concerts with Pacific Opera; Dew Fairy and Sandman in "Hansel and Gretel" (Concord Symphony); Eliza Gardner in the premiere of "Isabella" in Boston; Mercedes in "Carmen" (Dubuque Symphony); and roles in "HMS Pinafore" and "Gondoliers"(Boston Academy of Music).

Vocal Awards: Pandolfi Award at the Connecticut Opera Guild 2002 Scholarship Competition. She was also chosen for the Finals of the 2002 National Opera Association Vocal Competition, Semi-Finals of the 2001 Washington International Vocal Competition, Semi-Finals of the 2000 and 2001 New England Region of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and Semi-Finals of the 2001 OMTI/Marjorie Lawrence Vocal Competition.

Piano Awards: first place in the Wisconsin division of the MTNA Collegiate Artist competition in 1991, finalist in the Wisconsin Public Radio/Neale-Silva Young Artists competition in 1993, and winner of the UW Beethoven Competition in 1996, for which she performed the Beethoven "Hammerklavier" Sonata, Op. 106.

Contact: theisenk@wcsu.edu