Empowering women and girls through music. The project is a collaborative effort from the minds and hearts of Dr. Katharine Boyes, piano, and Dr. Susan Mohini Kane, soprano. Both of these musicians studied women composers at The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as graduate students. They are committed to including the voices of women into the canon of classical art song and piano music. Season One: Night Songs by Women (2021) is completed and they are currently working on Season Two.

Pianist Katharine Boyes, a native of England, has performed solo and chamber music recitals throughout Great Britain and the U.S.A. in venues such as the Royal Festival Hall and Barbican Center, London; Temple Square Concert Series, Salt Lake City; and Davis Symphony Hall, San Francisco. She received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance from the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, and also degrees from the Royal Academy of Music, London and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Katharine has a special interest in piano music by women composers and in 2001 she released Piano Portraits of the Seasons by Women Composers, a CD of repertoire which portrays the seasons. She is currently preparing repertoire for another CD entitled, Nocturnes by Women Composers. She is also developing a lecture-recital of songs by women composers about the night with soprano, Susan Kane, for 2020. Katharine has created a music-theatrical performance entitled Monologues and Music in which she performs as women composer-pianists of the European Salons of the nineteenth century. She also been featured on BBC Radio and American Public Radio.

Katharine is active in furthering the education of young musicians, college students and adults and frequently serves as adjudicator, clinician, masterclass specialist, lecturer, and workshop coordinator. She has studied the Alexander Technique with several clinicians including Charles Stein of Winston-Salem, NC and Barbara Conable of Columbus, OH, and her interest and study of Eurhythmics began with Allen Otte, a member of the Cincinnati Percussion Ensemble.

Currently, Katharine is Assistant Professor in the Fine Arts Department at Wake Technical Community College, Raleigh. Her previous faculty positions include University of North Carolina School of the Arts, North Carolina State University, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Wake Forest University, Preparatory Music School – University of Cincinnati, and Salem College.

Dr. Kane is professor emeritus at Cal State LA in music and opera. As an opera singer and college voice professor, Susan performed with orchestra and chorus in operas and oratorios, recorded CDs, attained tenure and promotion to full professor and even wrote a book (The 21st-Century Singer: Making the Leap from the University into the World – Oxford, 2015).

In December of 2020, in the middle of Covid, Kane’s career took a huge u-turn. She got up the courage to quit her tenured university position to spend all her time on her musical projects. In January of 2021, she started her own LLC and began performing weekly as a singer-songwriter.

Kane’s LLC, Santosha Voice Group, offers opportunities for everyday people to discover the life-affirming power of singing – through singing lessons, courses, and events. Dr. Kane still works with college voice students and faculty from her academic life.

She is currently working on her third album, the first one of her own original songs. You can find the first two on Spotify by searching Susan Mohini Kane. Susan writes and performs intelligent, creative, and compassionate songs to get us through the 21st-century.