CATHERINE AKS (1946 – ), soprano, has taught voice in New York City for almost 30 years. She taught at the Lucy Moses School at the Kaufman Center from 1981 through 2007 and was on the soprano faculty of the Berkshire Choral Festival from 1994 through 2002. She has been artist in residence at several New York City high schools, most recently at Brooklyn Technical High School, where she continues to guide student choruses and soloists since 1999. In 1993 Ms. Aks received the Queens College Choral Society Distinguished Alumni Award. She has completed the Professional Development Program with the New York Singing Teachers’ Association and was named Distinguished Voice Professional in 2002. She maintains private voice studios in Brooklyn and Manhattan.Ms. Aks has toured the country with several organizations, including the Paul Hill Chorale and the Gregg Smith Singers. She has appeared as soloist with Musica Sacra, the Sine Nomine Singers, the Berskshire Choral Festival, the St. Thomas Choir, the Queens College Choral Society, the Greater Bridgeport Symphony, the Great Neck Choral Society, the Fairfield County Chorale, the Catskills Choral Society, the Long Island Choral Society, the New Hampshire Music Festival, the Westchester Oratorio Society and the Hudson Valley Philharmonic. As soloist with the Martha Graham Dance Company at Lincoln Center, she sang George Crumb’s Lux Aeterna and Edgar Varese’s Offrandes, which she recorded with the Danish Radio Orchestra. Premières have included Robert Starer’s To Think of Time, McNeil Robinson’s Messe Solennelle, Scott Roller’s World Lines and Dennis Reilly’s Seven Songs on Poems of Emily Dickinson. She was a featured performer in “Festival Presences ’98” in Paris with a performance of Iannis Xenakis’ N’Shima, which she has recorded for Mode Records.
Ms. Aks is also a composer with several published works and was composer in residence at the Church of the Incarnation for several years. Recently, her Three Modern Madrigals were performed by the Gregg Smith Singers at St. Peter’s Church in New York City. They were published by E. Henry David Publishers in 2007.
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