Dr Katherine Skovira

Katherine Skovira, D.M.A. (she/her) is a nationally recognized contemporary music performer and researcher. Of her work, The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote, “The diabolical enthusiasm of Katherine Skovira… left me nearly begging for mercy...the artistic equivalent of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft.”

Dr. Skovira serves as Faculty Fellow in Music at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She received the 2021 Discovery Grant for Female Composers and additional grants from Opera America’s New Works Forum and New Music USA and is a mezzo-soprano and librettist for the new opera The Other Side of Silence. Dr. Skovira has presented at various conferences including Opera America, the Voice Foundation and National Association of Teachers of Singing, as well as the International Congress of Voice Teachers, which published her recent article "The Forgotten Fach: The Sfogato in the Nineteenth Century." At the Voice Foundation in 2024, Dr. Skovira presented her early findings on singing’s impact on pulmonary function and SCI injury. As a performer, she has sung with Lorin Maazel, Sir Simon Rattle, and Barbara Hannigan and collaborated with the JACK Quartet, Lucerne Festival Academy, Philadelphia Orchestra, Curtis Institute, Institute on Disabilities at Temple University, American Philosophical Society, American Composers Forum, University of Pennsylvania, and Alarm Will Sound. Dr. Skovira holds degrees in vocal performance, voice pedagogy, and political science from Cornell University, Westminster Choir College, and the University of Minnesota School of Music.