Katherine Sandoval Taylor, a native of Asheville, NC, has appeared in oratorio, concert, musical theater, and opera performances throughout the Southeast, as well as in various venues in Massachusetts. Studying voice and pedagogy under Mark St. Laurent, she earned a Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from New England Conservatory (NEC) in Boston, MA. She also holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from Furman University, in Greenville, SC, where she studied with mezzo-soprano, Trudy Hines Fuller.

While at NEC, she performed the roles of Aurelia Havisham, in Dominick Argento's monodrama, Miss Havisham's Wedding Night and Pernile, in American composer John Duke’s comedy, Captain Lovelock. She was also a featured soloist in the musical review, There Once Was a Girl Named Jenny – Theater Music of Kurt Weill, performed in the legendary Jordan Hall, which is considered one of the two most acoustically perfect performance spaces for classical music in America. Also at NEC, she performed the partial roles of Nannetta, in Falstaff, Sifare, in Mitridate, Nellie, in Summer and Smoke, Elisetta, in Il Matrimonio Segreto, and Vénus, in Orphée aux enfers. While at Furman University, she performed the role of Countess Almaviva, in Le Nozze di Figaro, and the partial roles of Mimi, in La Bohème and Frasquita, in Carmen. April 2007, Ms. Taylor was delighted to return to her home town to perform as a featured soloist with the Asheville Lyric Opera and Asheville Bravo! in the concert, Rising Stars: A Homecoming.

In addition to her operatic repertoire, Ms. Taylor has performed a variety of musical theater roles such as Eliza, in My Fair Lady, of which the Boston Globe said, “You’re so amazed that she has such a beautiful soprano that you forget how beautiful she is until she comes out in her gown. She makes a stunning Eliza.” Of her performance as Guenevere, in The Savoyard Light Opera Company’s production of Camelot, The Carlisle Mosquitoe said, “The luminous Katherine Sandoval Taylor wows the audience as Guenevere, running the gamut from coquettish to regal to sorrowful with a soaring soprano. She seems imbued with her own spotlight.” Ms. Taylor has also performed the roles of Anna & Tuptim, in The King and I, The Narrator & Rubens Wife, in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, and Philia, in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Southern Appalachian Repertory Theater.

An avid supporter of young artists pursuing their dreams, Ms. Taylor organized, produced, and performed the 2002 Benefit Concert, Bach to Broadway, for the Asheville Area Arts Council, where she raised over $4,000 for their Arts in Education scholarship program. This prestigious scholarship is annually awarded to graduating high school seniors, pursuing various forms of the arts in college. Ms. Taylor was awarded this scholarship in 2000. Of Ms. Taylor’s performance, The Asheville Citizen Times said, “Bach to Broadway expresses her ambition and her range, both of which are formidable… She convincingly conveyed the inner feelings of the characters and brought them to dramatic as well as musical life… She has been doing musical theater since girlhood and knows well how to tell a story in song, how to work with other actors, and how to connect with an audience.”

An experienced teacher, Ms. Taylor has taught voice and pedagogy at the New England Conservatory, Boston Children’s Chorus, Furman University, and currently maintains a private studio in the Nashville, TN area.

Returning to the stage for the first time since the birth of her baby girl, Ms. Taylor will debut as Maria, in the Center for the Arts production of The Sound of Music (Murfreesboro, TN) in June 2009.