MC426 | MA156
Education
- D.M. Voice, Certificate in Vocology, Indiana University, 2023
- M.M., Voice Performance and Pedagogy, University of Colorado Boulder, 2011
- B.M., Music Education, Iowa State University, 2008
Soprano Catherine Compton is lecturer in music in voice at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she teaches applied voice and serves as acting managing director of IU Jacobs School of Music Opera and Ballet Theater.
In 2023, she joined the faculty of Summer Opera Tel Aviv.
Previously, Compton served on the voice faculty of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), where she taught applied voice, diction, and music entrepreneurship. She directed UTRGV Opera Theater, and her production of Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld was awarded first place in the 2017 National Opera Association Collegiate Opera Production Competition.
As a Fulbright fellow in Leipzig, Germany, Compton sang with the Leipzig Bach Festival, Mendelssohn Haus Museum, and Gewandhaus zu Leipzig. Recent performances in the U.S. include Lili Boulanger’s Clairières dans le ciel at Indiana University, the Brahms Requiem with the Truman State Symphony Orchestra, Bach’s Cantata 51 with the Brownsville Chamber Orchestra, and Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Central Iowa Symphony. Operatic roles include Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Mother (Amahl and the Night Visitors), and Gretel (Hansel and Gretel), among others.
Dedicated to researching and performing music by women composers, with special focus on nineteenth-century lieder by women, Compton was named a 2021 PEO Scholar Award winner in support of her research. She has been a featured presenter in Vienna for the International Congress of Voice Teachers and for the International Music by Women Festival.
Compton is passionate about helping students develop and maintain fulfilling and sustainable singing practices. She has presented master classes and lectures on vocal health and habilitation, music and gender, and German lieder, among other topics. Additionally, her teaching and approach to music education is enhanced by her work as an arts administrator and producer. She has served as an administrator with organizations including IU Jacobs School of Music Opera and Ballet Theater, UTRGV Patron of the Arts, Off-Broadway School of Fine Arts in Boulder, CU Presents Artist Series, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Colorado Music Festival, and Metropolitan Opera Guild.
She holds a Doctor of Music in Voice degree and a Certificate in Vocology from the Jacobs School of Music and an M.M. in Voice Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder. She was a graduate assistant for the Musicians’ Wellness Initiative at CU and has studied Alexander Technique in the U.S. and Germany. In 2018, she was a National Association of Teachers of Singing intern.
Compton received further vocal training at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Leipzig. She earned a Bachelor of Music in Music Education degree from Iowa State University and taught K-12 music in Rosendal, Norway, in partial fulfillment of her teaching license.