Kathryn LaBouff

Vocal Arts faculty member Kathryn LaBouff teaches English diction in the College Division and diction for singers in Pre-College. She has been a College faculty member since 1986 and a Pre-College faculty member since 2008. LaBouff is assistant chair of the voice faculty at Manhattan School of Music, where she has been a faculty member since 1984. LaBouff has coached and prepared more than 300 opera productions in English. U.S. premieres she has worked on include John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby, Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy, Brett Dean’s Hamlet, and Kevin Puts’ The Hours for the Metropolitan Opera; Nicholas Maw’s Sophie’s Choice and Scott Wheeler’s Democracy for Washington National Opera; Mark Adamo’s Little Women, Carlisle Floyd’s Cold Sassy Tree, and André Previn’s Brief Encounter for Houston Grand Opera; Mark Adamo’s Lysistrata for Houston Grand Opera and New York City Opera; Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Anna Nicole for Brooklyn Academy of Music and New York City Opera; Jonathan Dove’s Flight for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; and Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters for Gotham Chamber Opera. LaBouff is the author of Singing and Communicating in English: A Singer’s Guide to English Diction. She is a featured contributor to the Diction Coach guides for the G. Schirmer opera anthology series, a frequent coach for the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, and a board and faculty member for Dolora Zajick’s Institute for Young Dramatic Voices. LaBouff was formerly a faculty member at the Curtis Institute of Music, Yale and Cornell universities, Ithaca College, Mannes College of Music, and the Banff Centre for the Arts. Born in Belmond, Iowa, LaBouff received her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate in voice performance from the University of Michigan.