ARTISTIC DIRECTOR – Following a year as Interim Artistic Director in our 2024-25 Season, Kathryn Whitney became the new Artistic Director of Ensemble Laude in July 2026. Kathryn is a singer, choral conductor, vocal clinician, arranger, administrator, and arts entrepreneur based on unceded Coast Salish territory on Southern Vancouver Island.

In addition to her work with Ensemble Laude, Kathryn is the founding Artistic Director of the SING THE NORTH global family of choirs and the annual Sing the North International Summer Choral Festival, the One World Baroque Virtual Orchestra & Chorus (run with Music Director, Daniel Taylor), and the Pacific Song Collective. Kathryn is also Music Director of the Newcombe Singers, and Founding Director of the SongArt Performance Research Group in the School of Advanced Study at the University of London.

Raised in Victoria, Kathryn began her singing journey with Carla Levinson at the Victoria Conservatory of Music, and went on to attain a BA in Music & German at the University of Toronto, a doctorate in music aesthetics at Oxford University, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Singing-Early Music at the Guildhall School of Music in London. She was Artist in Residence at both the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and at Wolfson College, Oxford, and was a Performance Fellow at King’s College, London. She held a Performance Research Fellowship at the School of Advanced Study at the University of London for 10 years. Her principal singing teachers were Cornelius Reid (New York), and Susan McCulloch and Dame Emma Kirkby (London).

Experience as a chorister and soloist includes concerts with Budapest Chamber Opera under Pál Németh, the Monteverdi Choir & English Baroque Soloists under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the Munich Bach Choir under Hans-Jörg Albrecht, the Whitstable Choral Society under Canterbury Cathedral Director of Music, David Flood, plus 10 years of weekly singing in Oxford Anglican Chapel Choirs. Locally in Victoria, Kathryn has sung as a soloist with the Sooke Philharmonic, Victoria Choral Society, Victoria Philharmonic Choir, Palm Court Orchestra, Victoria Baroque, and with many choirs around the city. 

Alongside her performance work in the UK, Kathryn was a college lecturer in music history, aesthetics, and analysis at Oxford University for 12 years, with concurrent appointments at Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music in London

As a choral clinician for the BC Choral Federation, Kathryn has worked with dozens of amateur and semi-professional choirs across the province. As a choir director, she has prepared symphonic choruses for Steven Devine, Daniel Taylor, Howard Dyck, and Laurence Cummings, including for broadcasts of the London Handel Festival. The recipient of research and performance grants and scholarships from the Canada Council, the BC Arts Council, the University of Oxford, and the Worshipful Company of Drapers’, she has toured as a recital soloist across Western Canada. A champion of new music, Kathryn has performed more than 60 world premieres, the majority of pieces written for her voice. Commissions she has instigated include both solo and choral works now published internationally with Cypress Choral Music, Boosey & Hawkes, and Novello & Co. 

Kathryn is thrilled to be leading Ensemble Laude and looks forward to seeing you at one of our concerts, or to singing with you in this or a future season.