Kathryn Sloat

Kathryn Sloat, “whose harp playing evoked the angels (Brooklyn Discovery),” is known for her work in opera and contemporary chamber music in New York City and throughout the United States. She is a member of the contemporary harp duo Lilac 94 with whom she has had the honor of performing at the American Harp Society’s 2015 National Conference in Logan, Utah, the Fresh Inc Festival in Wisconsin and Chicago, as well as various chamber music series along the east coast. Kathryn has also worked with a number of composers in bringing their music alive through initial readings and concert performances for the New York Composers Circle and Secret Opera. As an orchestral harpist, Kathryn has performed in a variety of festivals with conductors such as Keith Lockhart, JoAnn Falletta, Leon Botstein, Larry Rachleff, and a notable performance with conductor Krešimir Batinić and the Zagreb Philharmonic in their Carnegie Hall debut for the premiere of Malek Jandali’s Luminosity, a four-movement sinfonietta for chamber orchestra inspired by and dedicated to the Syrian children.

 Kathryn has also begun, through improvisation, to create her own music. During the global coronavirus pandemic she created a Patreon account in order to support her online performing activities, which include a weekly improvisation video. In the fall of 2020 She attended an artist residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, conducted by acclaimed percussionist Billy Martin. As a member of a group of associate artists, she studied improvisation, rhythm, graphic scores, and non-western musical histories.

With a passion for performing in musical theatre and opera, Kathryn has played in pit orchestras for Off-Broadway and regional theater productions of Once Upon a Mattress, The Fantasticks,  A Light in the Piazza, Peter Pan, and others.  As a member of the Ohio Light Opera Orchestra, she performed works from this repertory including Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I, Cole Porter’s Silk Stockings, and Johann Strauss II’s The Gypsy Baron. She has also subbed for Radio City’s annual Christmas Spectacular. Kathryn has worked with various small opera companies in New York City for performances such as Carmen (Tricities Opera), The Rape of Lucretia (New Camerata Opera), and Tosca (Loft Opera).

Kathryn takes a special delight in performing the works of composer Benjamin Britten. First hooked in college when she played her first Britten opera, Albert Herring, and then again with her first performance of The Ceremony of Carols, she has since played numerous Britten operas and put on her own production of his chamber works for harp entitled “A Birthday Hansel for Benjamin Britten.” Kathryn pursues as many opportunities as possible to play this great composer’s music.

In addition to her performance work, Kathryn is a dedicated harp teacher. She has taught individual and group lessons as a private instructor and as a part of the National String Project. Since 2014 she has been an assistant harp teacher at the Connecticut Valley Harp Intensive, and has given educational performances and workshops as a member of her harp duo Lilac 94. In the summer of 2019 she was the harp teacher in residence at the Luzerne Music Center in upstate New York. Kathryn was recently appointed as a harp instructor at the Diller-Quaile School of Music and at the Dwight School in New York City. 

Kathryn Sloat holds degrees in harp performance from the Crane School of Music, Eastman School of Music, and Mannes College of Music. She currently lives in Manhattan as a Stonehenge Still Standing Artist in Residence and maintains a busy schedule of performing and teaching. In her free time, Kathryn Sloat enjoys knitting, reading, walking up and down mountains, and watching plants grow.