Portland State University: An Evening Song

• Katherine Goforth, tenor
• Chuck Dillard, piano

Join tenor Katherine Goforth and pianist Chuck Dillard in an evening of art songs and arias. Goforth is the recipient of the inaugural True Voice Award, created to increase the visibility of transgender and non-binary opera singers. Dillard is a PSU faculty member and founder of Queer Opera.

About Portland State University School of Music & Theater

https://www.pdx.edu/music-theater/

About Katherine Goforth, tenor

American vocalist Katherine Goforth shares the "thrilling tenor power" (Opera News) of her "noble, colorful and iridescent vocal sound" (Magazin Klassik) in vivid character portraits and heartfelt performances that "[do] not hold back" (The New York Times). A transgender woman, Katherine is undeterred by historical barriers in the performing arts and is finding new ways to show up authentically on stage, in the rehearsal room, and as a creative artist.

Katherine is the recipient of Washington National Opera's inaugural True Voice Award for transgender and non-binary singers and the Career Advancement Award from the fourth Dallas Symphony Orchestra Women in Classical Music Symposium. She won critical acclaim as part of the cast that premiered Philip Venables and Ted Huffman’s The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions at Manchester International Festival, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, and Bregenzer Festspiele. Based in Portland, OR, she has appeared extensively as a soloist with Pacific Northwest-based arts organizations, including Portland Opera, Bozeman Symphony, Walla Walla Symphony, Yakima Symphony, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Opera Bend, Harmonia Seattle, Opera Theater Oregon, Sound Salon (formerly Byron Schenkman and Friends), Ping and Woof Opera, Artists Repertory Theatre, Fuse Theatre Ensemble, and Pink Martini.

Equally at home as a creative artist, Katherine was most recently part of the team that developed and produced Nu Nah-Hup: Sacajawea's Story, a collaboration with Rose Ann Abrahamson, Sacajawea's familial descendant, Hovia Edwards, Native American flutist, and Justin Ralls, composer and artistic director of Opera Theater Oregon, starring mezzo soprano Marion Newman and baritone Richard Zeller. She has written for Opera Canada, and spoken at Boston Conservatory, Whitman College, Renegade Opera, the Beyond Travesti podcast, and the League of American Orchestras Anne Parsons Leadership Program. She is a member of the Beth Morrison Projects Producer Academy 2023 Cohort.

Katherine was a member of the International Opera Studio of Oper Köln, received her Bachelor's degree from St. Olaf College, her Master's degree from the Juilliard School, and attended the Franz-Schubert-Institut, Britten Pears Young Artist Programme, Heidelberger Frühling Liedakademie, Georg Solti Accademia, and Boston Wagner Institute.

About Chuck Dillard, piano

Whether he is collaborating with an instrumentalist, coaching a singer, conducting an opera, or accompanying a choir, Chuck Dillard is a musician at his best while working with others. Hired as a church pianist at age seven, he fashioned his musical beginnings, education and career around the art of collaboration.

Recently appointed as Assistant Professor, Chuck was brought to Portland State University to create a new graduate program in Collaborative Piano. Previously, he served on faculty at the University of Texas at Austin from 2008 to 2016 assisting to create a similar program. From 2001 to 2005 he was on faculty at Furman University in Greenville, SC as instructor of music theory and staff pianist.

As a pianist, Dr. Dillard enjoys collaborating with performers ranging from sopranos to contrabassoonists. Some of his recital partners include vocalists Barbara Conrad (Metropolitan Opera), Donnie Ray Albert (Houston Grand Opera) and Morgan Smith (San Francisco Opera) and instrumentalists Joseph Alessi (New York Philharmonic), Stephen Lange (Boston Symphony), Gerry Pagano (St. Louis Symphony), Paul Pollard (Metropolitan Opera Orchestra), Jorgen Van Rijen (Royal Concertgebouw), Harvey Pittel (Pittel Trio) and Douglas Yeo (Boston Symphony). An enthusiastic supporter of recital evolution, his concerts often include elements of photography, dance, spoken word and other integrated art forms.

In the field of opera, Chuck has a broad range of experiences as a conductor, coach and pianist. He has worked for companies including Austin Opera, Opera Carolina, Central City Opera, Piedmont Opera, and his collaboration with Opera Colorado on a new production of Nixon in China is available on the Naxos label. In addition to working professionally, Dr. Dillard is very involved in vocal and operatic training for singers from the high school to the pre-professional level. He spends his summers with young singers in programs such as Opera Viva! in Verona, Italy, and Spotlight on Opera in Austin, TX. Operatic conducting credits include Le nozze di Figaro, Falstaff, Carmen, Little Women, The Crucible, and La femme Boheme—the first all-female version of Puccini's opera.

As an educator, Dr. Dillard crafts his instruction around the belief that today's musician should be able to make a living in their art form while creating beautiful music in the process. He has developed courses in vocal and instrumental accompanying, lyric diction, music theory, collaborative literature and art song history. He is frequently seen at national conferences speaking on topics including orchestrating at the piano, works of Reynaldo Hahn, and how to work with pianists in voice lessons. Past conference presentations have been given at the National Performing Arts Convention, ClarinetFest, International Trombone Festival, National Opera Association, Music Teachers National Association, Collegiate Music Society, International Double Reed Society, and Texas Music Educators Association.

Dr. Dillard received degrees in collaborative piano from the University of Colorado – Boulder (DMA) and the University of Maryland – College Park (MM). Also, he received two Bachelor of Music degrees from Furman University in piano performance and music theory. His principal teachers were Anne Epperson, Robert McCoy, Rita Sloan, Ruby Morgan and Derek Parsons. He is a member of Pi Kappa Lamba and Sigma Alpha Iota as a Friend of the Arts.