About Katrina

Katrina is a soprano, conductor, and arts administrator in Austin, TX. 

2023-2024 features Katrina with her vocal quintet VAMP in Between the Worlds as the season opener for KMFA Classical 89.5’s Offbeat Series. Following that, Katrina sings the soprano solo in “Aurora” by the legendary Icelandic singer Björk, a new arrangement by Benjamin Dia, with new music groups Inversion Ensemble and Density512. She performs in Don’t Blink: An Evening of New Music, a recital with trumpet player Kenken Gorder and pianist Benjamin Dia, singing the music of Susan Kander and Beth Wiemann. She shares the stage with Inversion Artistic Director Trevor Shaw, co-conducting Inversion’s youth choir Nova in Zoology. She joins VAMP in a concert presented by Austin Classical Guitar, singing the world premiere of works by Joe Williams and of celebrated Indian-American composer Reena Esmail. After that, she performs again with VAMP in a concert presented by Austin Community College as part of its Find Your Voice series. Katrina makes her directorial debut of the professional soprano alto choir Da Capo in a joint concert, with the Inversion family of ensembles, that centers immigrant and refugee voices. In that concert, Da Capo premieres works by Inversion in-house composers Benjamin Dia (“Canto del viajero”) and Adrienne Inglis (“The Way We Meet”). Katrina will also be singing two world premieres on both days of the 2nd annual indie-classical music festival Here Be Monsters by Tetractys New Music: As part of VAMP, performing “Push” from Invisible Women by Russell Podgorsek, and as the soprano soloist of Inversion, singing “Godric and His Demons” by James Tecuatl-Lee. The season concludes with Katrina joining fellow Austin-based artists for a Pride recital in Studio A.

The 2022-2023 season was a year of big projects and new roles. Katrina became the interim Associate Conductor for community choir Panoramic Voices, the newest member of VAMP, and the Administrative Director and Associate Conductor of new music group Inversion Ensemble with directorship of the professional treble ensemble Da Capo. She opened the season by performing at VAMP’s inaugural concert at KMFA Classical 89.5, and afterwards at a house concert with pianists Andy Grainger and Benjamin Dia, and cellist Annette Eicker. After that, she performed with Inversion Ensemble in their Season 7 opening concert Electric Choir in KMFA, sang a recital with pianist Benjamin Dia at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin. In January of 2023, Katrina sang the soprano solo in the world premiere of “Ophelia Floats” by composer Steven Sérpa with Da Capo, and performed with Inversion in Planet Home with soundscape artist Seylon Stills. Katrina conducted both Inversion’s professional mixed ensemble and community choir Panoramic Voices and sang as part of VAMP at the unofficial SXSW showcase at KMFA Classical’s Contemporary Day Party. Katrina also premiered VAMP singer-composer Laura Mercado-Wright’s work “Smile” at fellow VAMP Page Stephens’ doctoral recital. Following that, she performed with VAMP as a guest at the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) Project presented by soprano Maureen Papovich and LOLA Austin. To end the season, Katrina and VAMP performed at the first ever Here Be Monsters music festival conceptualized and produced by Tetractys New Music. 

In 2021-2022, Katrina found herself performing in a number of projects. She opened the season singing at Inversion Ensemble’s Through the Prism concert. Following that was a performance of Inversion with the Kronos Quartet under the baton of conductor Valerie Saint-Agathe–the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Abels’ At War with Ourselves with words by National Book Award winner, poet Nikky Finney. Inversion featured Katrina in Eternal Graffiti, the organization’s first ever vocal recital. In that recital, Katrina sang an ambitious program of all world premieres by Austin composers and poets to create boundary-pushing contemporary vocal music. After that, Katrina took part in the University of the Philippines Symphony Orchestra online concert called Opera Eksena where she sang “Abscheulicher!... Komm, Hoffnung” from Beethoven’s Fidelio. Katrina sang with Da Capo in Fire and Ice, and, to close out the season, she performed in Inversion’s I Belong to You, the world premiere of the multimedia oratorio of the same name, with text by comic book writer Greg Pak that centered on belonging, coming home, and Texas with guest artists Invoke. Katrina sang the soprano solo in a movement composed by Robbie LaBanca.

During the COVID-19 pandemic during the 2020-2021 season, when live performances were few and far between, Katrina performed as a featured soloist for a number of online concerts, some of which include: The Ateneo de Manila Glee Club’s Laya; the world premiere of Steven Sérpa’s dramatic oratorio james (book of ruth) and Robbie LaBanca’s Transpose with Inversion Ensemble; and Brent Baldwin’s “Atmósfera” with Panoramic Voices.

Her 2019-2020 engagements include the Texas premiere of Robin Estrada’s “Duayya” at the Austin Chamber Music Center Pride Festival; the opening concert of LOLA Austin’s 4th season with mezzo-soprano Bethany Ammon and pianist Benjamin Dia; the world-premiere of Nathan Felix’s Alien Wanderers, Alien World, Alien Home at the Blanton Museum of Art, Carlos Cordero’s Forgiveness with Panoramic Voices, and songs by pianist-composer Andrew Grainger; and performing several solo recitals in Austin, TX.

In the 2018-2019 season, Katrina was a featured singer at the Metropolitan Opera Guild in New York, performing excerpts from La Fanciulla del West. She also sang the role of Mother in Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors with Texas Concert Opera Collective.

Opera highlights include performances at the Kennedy Center and the Kaye Playhouse as Tiya Isabel in De Leon’s Noli Me Tangere; at the Manhattan School of Music as the Ice Cream Vendor in Foss’s Griffelkin; and at Tokyo Opera Association as Bizen no Kata in Maramba’s Lord Takayama Ukon. She has also appeared in opera scenes playing Mimi in La Bohème, Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly, Chimène in Le Cid, Elisabetta in Maria Stuarda, Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, Leonora in Il Trovatore, and Desdemona in Otello.

Concert highlights include Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder with the Manhattan Philharmonia and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Manhattan Sinfonia under the baton of Kenneth Kiesler; Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra; Orff’s Carmina Burana with the San Miguel Philharmonic Orchestra and Philippine Philharmonic Orchestras; Dubois’ Seven Last Words of Christ, Haydn’s Mass in G Major, and Schubert’s Stabat Mater with the Bamboo Organ Festival Orchestra; Carter’s Cantata; Chausson’s Chanson perpetuelle; Bizet’s Te Deum; Vivaldi’s Gloria; Saint-Saëns’ Oratorio de Noël; Fauré’s and Brahms’s Requiem; and the role of St. Mary in Sirota’s Holy Women.

She is an encouragement award recipient at the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition in the Wagner Division, a finalist of the Mary Trueman Art Song Vocal Competition, first prize winner at the Eisenberg-Fried Concerto Competition at the Manhattan School of Music, third prize winner at the Philippines’ National Music Competition for Young Artists, and the beneficiary of a study grant from the Philippines’ National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

Katrina holds a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from the University of the Philippines College of Music, and a Master of Music degree and a Professional Studies certificate from the Manhattan School of Music. She is a fierce advocate of Filipino music and the creation and performance of new music, and programs as much of these as she can in her projects.