Contact

Area: 

Voice, Theory

Phone: 

243-2182

Room: 

Mus 212

Email: 

kimberly.james@umontana.edu

 Dr. Kimberly Gratland James, Mezzo-Soprano, enjoys an active performance career in opera, concert, and recital venues.  She made her Lincoln Center debut in 2003 in John Adams' Grand Pianola Music with John Adams conducting the London Sinfonietta.  She previously performed the piece with the New World Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Recent notable concert performances include: Verdi’s Requiem with the Missoula Symphony Orchestra, Texas University Chorale and Orchestra at Ft. Worth’s Bass Hall, and with the Corpus Christi Symphony, the title role of Carmen with the Helena Symphony, Mahler’s Second Symphony at Amherst College, Honneger’s King David with the Valdosta State Symphony, and the Bach St. John’s Passion at Minot State University.    She has also performed Ravel’s Shéhérazade, Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy and the 9^th Symphony, Duruflé’s Requiem, and several baroque oratorio works.

Kimberly has been engaged professionally with New Orleans Opera, Chautauqua Opera, the Opera Theater of St. Louis, the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program for Singers, Opera Mundi (Mexico City), Lyric Opera Cleveland, and Western Plains Opera, among others.   Her favorite performed roles include include Carmen, Jo (Little Women), Hansel, Erika (Vanessa), Nancy (Albert Herring), Siébel (Faust), and Dido (Dido and Aeneas).  

Kimberly received a Doctor of Music degree and Performer’s Diploma from Indiana University.  She is also a certified vocologist, having completed a program with the National Center for Voice Science under Dr. Ingo Titze.  Dr. James joined the University of Montana music faculty in 2005.  Currently, she teaches applied voice, diction for singers (MUSI 281-282), and special topics courses at the graduate level.  She has also taught class voice for music education majors, vocal literature, and music theory. 

Dr. James’s research interests are varied and include curriculum development, teaching with technology, gender subversion in vocal music, and vocology.  She has given several presentations on teaching with technology, using coffee straws as a vocal habilitation tool in the voice studio, and was invited to present on the political use of music in Serbia at the International College Music Society Conference.  Dr. James is also a regular invited adjudicator (NATS, MTNA, All State) in Montana.

Dr. James enjoys working with national service organizations at the local and regional level.  She has served in leadership positions with the College Music Society and serves the National Association of Teachers of Singing(NATS) as a District Governor.  She also helped establish the Student NATS Chapter on the campus of the University of Montana, Fall 2010.  Dr. James established a local chapter of the International Cesarean Awareness Network(ICAN), a consumer childbirth advocacy, awareness, and education group and previously served as Editor for ICAN’s international newsletter, the Clarion.