B.Mus; LRAM; Dip RAM; ARAM
Mezzo Soprano, Co-founder and CEO of Forget-me-not Chorus,
Vocal Animateur and Singing Teacher
Sharing The Air (Osborn/Vaughan)
Kate is an accomplished mezzo-soprano, vocal animateur and singing teacher, who was deservedly voted ITV 1 Lorraine’s Inspirational Woman of the Year in 2012. More recently, Kate received the The Sir Bryn Terfel Foundation Wales Care Award For promoting The Arts in Social Care 2022, and Welsh Music Guild Pendine Arts & Community Trust Award for Music 2023. In 2017, Kate was made an Associate of The Royal Academy of Music in recognition of her outstanding services to music. Kate was awarded an MBE in the 2024 King’s New Years Honours List for ‘services to people with dementia and their families'.
Kate is a renowned vocal animateur and choral trainer who along with a busy career in the UK, has gained an international reputation in this field, working in the US, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Dubai.
Recently, Kate led on an innovative programme with Welsh National Opera delivered in partnership with NHS Wales Health Boards. Wellness with WNO is a singing and breathing programme for people with Long Covid in Wales. Launched in November 2021, the programme is delivered in a relaxed, informal setting where participants are invited to explore singing and performing techniques used at Welsh National Opera, with the aim to support improved breath control, lung function, circulation, and posture. Over 100 participants have completed the programme so far.
Kate is a co-founder and CEO of Forget-me-not Chorus. Described by one chorister as ‘a spa for the soul’, FMNC uses the power of song to support those living with and alongside dementia in community, care home and hospital settings, and online. Although the impact of dementia can be devastating, FMNC’s interactive singing sessions are far from sad. Joy and laughter are the norm and choristers range in age from their teens to their nineties. By inspiring everyone to participate to the best of their abilities, FMNC’s work re-connects communities, nourishes relationships and demonstrates the transformational power of shared song.
In the last twelve years, Kate and team have taken FMNC from one Cardiff-based community chorus to a pioneering service accessed across the UK and beyond. Over 1900 UK-wide care homes subscribe to free online pre-recorded sessions; five community choruses meet in-person in South and North Wales, and online via Zoom; 26 UK-wide care homes are part of FMNC Singing Strong Care Home Chorus programme; additional care homes regularly join via Zoom and/or pay for in-person sessions; and the charity continues to work with Cardiff & Vale and Hywel Dda University Health Boards to deliver in hospitals. Calon supports those who have loved and lost someone with dementia.
Kate brings so much positive energy and attending has brought me so much joy (and I am not a singer!) It's been so informative understanding how breath works, and very beneficial
putting this into practice.
Wellness with WNO Participant
Kate... was nurturing them through the music and infusing in them an energy coming from her approach to music (and I suspect to life) that I can only
describe as evangelical.