Name: Kristen Wunderlich
Title: Professor of Music, Area Coordinator of Voice (Voice)
Education: D.M.A., Performance (Vocal Pedagogy), University of North Texas
M.M., Performance (Vocal Pedagogy), University of North Texas
B.A., Music and English, Luther College
Office: 311 Conservatory of Music
Phone: 803/323-4510
E-mail: wonderlichk@winthrop.edu
Area(s): Vocal Pedagogy, Art Song literature, HMXP 102, ACAD 101
Wunderlich holds a B.A. degree in music and English from Luther College and M.M. and D.M.A. degrees in performance with a related field of vocal pedagogy from the University of North Texas. Her dissertation topic focused on the song cycle The Prairie Sings, written for her by American composer Philip Wharton. She gave the premiere performance of the cycle in October 2006.
Wunderlich currently teaches voice, diction, art song literature, and vocal pedagogy at Winthrop. She has taught voice previously as a teaching fellow at the University of North Texas and as a faculty member at the University of Texas-Arlington, The Pennsylvania State University, Luther College, and Waldorf College.
As a dramatic soprano, she has been active on stage in both oratorio and opera. She has been a featured soloist with The Orchestra of New Spain, The Helios Ensemble, Texas Choral Artists, Texas Chamber Orchestra, Denton Bach Society, and the Williamsport Civic Orchestra. She also participated in a tour of the Czech Republic in 2004, where she performed as a soloist in Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. Operatic roles include The Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, The Witch and the Mother in Hansel and Gretel, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Zita in GianniSchicchi, Suor Angelica, Lady Billows in Albert Herring, and Charlotte in Werther.
During her tenure at Winthrop University, she has actively been engaged in singing as a soloist with the York County Choral Society, One Voice Chorus of Charlotte, and the Greater Anderson Musical Arts Consortium. She has been a featured soloist in Handel's Messiah, Ralph Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem, and the Verdi Requiem, as well as the featured soprano soloist with One Voice Chorus in the North American premiere of James McCarthy's Codebreaker, a musical work chronicling the life of Alan Turing.
Wunderlich has been a semi-finalist in the Heafner Williams Competition and a finalist in the prestigious McCammon Competition, The Dallas Opera Guild Competition, and the National Association of Teachers of Singing Artists Awards (NATSAA). Most recently, she was chosen as a semi-finalist in the Gerda Lissner Wagnerian Competition in March 2017.
A scholar of historical vocal pedagogy, she received a grant in 2004 to attend the Physiology and Acoustics of Singing conference in Denver, Colo. Wunderlich was selected as one of six national collegiate voice instructors to receive an Emerging Leaders award to attend the National NATS Conference in Boston, Massachusetts in July 2014. In 2016 she was honored to offer a presentation entitled, "Big is Beautiful" at the NATS National Conference in Chicago, Illinois. Her ongoing research in training large voices and helping teachers find ways to keep these voices singing is a source of great joy. She also has great interest in maturing/aging voices and teaches voice classes and master classes at Bonclarken Music Conference each summer.
Dr. Wunderlich currently serves as the President for the South Carolina Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.
Her students have enjoyed much success on stage in opera roles, competitions, and master classes. In the past few years, several of her students have advanced to Regional NATS competitions in both musical theatre and classical categories, with several advancing to the prestigious National NATS auditions. She also regularly has students participate in the annual Met Opera auditions.
Her teachers include vocal coach, Arlene Shrut, and Victoria Livengood.
