workshops & classes

singing now

Community Sing Saturday January 10 3-4pm

Art Share LA
801 E 4th Place, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Reserve by emailing me: singforyourself@gmail.com

Accessing our internal music libraries, we co-create spontaneous compositions inspired by the artwork in the gallery.

Sing21

Singing for 21 minutes changes the mind and body.
Set the timer and find your way to new options as you sing into the moment
and follow where the music leads.
Accessing our inherent musicality and our own internal music libraries,
we natural create melodies and edgy grooves that support artistic expression.
Making music this way ignites our creativity in liberating and playful ways.
Do this on your own or email me for an appointment.

 

singing before: past presentations 

Since the road trip in 2012, I have offered some noteworthy singing workshops which are listed below. The decade from 2015-2025 was spent primarily developing weekly programming in the Skid Row neighborhood of Downtown Los Angeles addressing the conditions of homelessness through the Arts & Health. Check out Urban Voices Project & Skid Row Arts Alliance.

Sing in a Circle – Nov 14, 2025
Brooklyn Conservatory of Music
58 Seventh Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217

Sing for Yourself – Oct 26, 2025
MiMoDa Studio, Paper or Plastik Cafe
5774 W. Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90019

Vital Voice: Mechanisms for Vocal Revitalization through Music Therapy and Music & Medicine – May 16 & 17, 2022
vital-voice.org

Music Therapy Ed – Monday, February 8, 2021
Online Tools for Drumming & Voice with Christine Stevens

Music Alive – Wednesday, February 3, 2021
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QFFeFd7o7SN2Fx3XTeZhwwdfjDDlof5P/view

ZikSA – An Art Forum – Sunday, January 30, 2021
Welcome to my artistic practice: Sing for Yourself

Singing for Connection & Resilience – Saturday, Dec 12, 2020
Arts & Healing Initiative– HOPE Series
During this one-hour workshop, we utilize singing, breathing techniques, and movement in order to tap into our inner resources, settle the nervous system, and re-establish balance. Through various fun, experiential exercises involving breath, tone exploration, call and response, participatory songwriting, and more, we explore ideas and strategies that promote both self-integration, connection, and resilience. Watch workshop here.

CMTE: Voice is the Primary Instrument in Music Therapy
Brooklyn Conservatory of Music – Friday Jan 17, 2020 
58 Seventh Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217 • 718.622.3300
www.bkcm.org
Whether you identify the voice as your primary instrument, or second or third, all that matters is that you feel free to play. Through speaking, singing and laughing, we connect with each other using our voices. This workshop is designed to give practical skills that can be used in clinical practice and in life to make meaningful change through music.
BKCM Music Therapy presents a three hour intensive professional development workshop for music therapists and music therapy degree program students as part of its Continuing Music Therapy Education (CMTE) program. This workshop is eligible for three continuing education credits for MT-BCs.  In this three hour workshop, participants will discover ways to use the voice for self-care and clinical practice.

Sing for Yourself: Intervals & Dissonance @ The Chanda Lair Jan 19, 2020
Arion Place & Broadway, Brooklyn, NY
More Info
This gathering focuses specifically on singing intervals to deepen listening skills and to experience dissonance as a way to build tolerance for discomfort and ultimately to expand into an in-tune and in-sync relationship with ourselves and this changing world around us.

Sing for Yourself @ Conscious Life Expo 2020 – Feb 8 & 9, 2020
LAX Hilton located at 5711 W. Century Blvd. • 800-367-5777
https://consciouslifeexpo.com/  Search for Sing

 

singing for yourself in the future

Adult singing sessions: offered in small group formats. The primary focus is voicework. Goals might include developing music skills, songwriting, opening the vocal range of pitch or emotion, centering and grounding practices, clarity in personal expression and communication. In-person and virtual via zoom.

Singing with Children: a music-centered, child-directed experience for adults with young children, nurturing creativity and musicality through exploring the elements of music: tone, melody, harmony, tempo, rhythm, and lyrics. Following the curiosity of the child, we co-create a rich and colorful playground to develop mastery in several areas: listening skills, personal expression of emotions and ideas, co-regulation, impulse control. Lessons are in-person, interactive and non-traditional.

Three hour Singing Circle events: fun, community building, creative, musical, and often transformative. We move, hum, listen, interact with each other in the music and together create a series of spontaneous compositions.

Two and a half day workshops: engaging workshops using voice and movement exercises, active imagination, improvisation, and song offer a deeper into music skill building, personal growth, professional development, and creative expression. 

Science confirms the physical and psychological benefits of group singing. Here’s a chance to see for yourself – “sing for yourself” – synchronize your heart beat with others, elevate endorphins, release oxytocin: the “social bonding hormone”… become a participating member of an “in tune” and “in sync” community.

These workshops are open all levels of musical training and evolve around the participants. We sing ourselves into musical landscapes using elements of music -tone, melody, harmony, rhythm, groove, language. A supportive community of singers is an essential aspect of this work.

VALIDATE the research and experience the JOY of group singing for yourself!

Email me for more information and registration:  SingforYourself@gmail.com

 

singing with Urban Voices Project

Neighborhood Sing & Music Wellness Labs
Wednesdays @ 2pm PT at LA Christian Health Center’s “Joshua House of Blues”
UVP Neighborhood Sing

Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays @ Community clinics & Public Libraries
ALL UVP Programs

Urban Voices Project amplifies artistic expression through community singing to improve well being, strengthen social networks, and inspire individuals to be their own best advocates. The music workshops engage individuals and families across the greater Los Angeles area in partnership with social, civic and healthcare organizations. Urban Voices Project’s outreach ensemble performances shift the narrative and perception of homelessness in today’s society.

 

singer feedback

Here are quotes from workshop participants:

Kate’s workshop was so inviting, comforting, healing, and completely satiated my hunger to spontaneously create that night. She has the most giving and nourishing presence as a teacher, and she seems to know just what is needed at just the right time. She has really found her calling- she personifies the perfect combination: finely honed music therapy skills blended with a wonderful improvising ability, a beautiful speaking AND singing voice, and she is a deeply intuitive teacher who gently challenges each of us in the ways we need to be. Because of this, she drew in an amazing ego-less group of folks and within minutes we were connecting like a family and making beautiful music together. I kept looking at the clock willing it to slow down, because I just didn’t want it to end! I can’t wait for the next one!
Alison Wedding
AlisonWedding.com

Whether she’s leading a Circle Song event, a peer improvising group, or an improvisation or music wellness workshop for people at any skill level, Kate creates a warm and inviting space in which participants find the freedom to stretch beyond their current level of ability. I’ve known Kate for many years, have worked with her in all these situations, and trust her completely to lead the way. I don’t know whether it’s because of or in spite of her high level of skill as a music therapist and improviser, but it always feels as though participants are on an exploratory journey together; Kate’s curiosity and generous spirit encourage people to try new things, all the while benefiting from her gentle guidance, and reveling in the sheer joy of singing with others.
Andrea Wolper
AndreaWolper.com

Your ability to gather people and guide them on these journeys is a gift and is *so* appreciated. Thanks for your tenacity, your passion, your musicality, your grace, your curiosity, joy, and vision. I’m so glad to have met and collaborated with you this year, and am excited about continuing–more often!!–in the year to come.
Christina Sheldon

…how incredible you are. What a wonderful evening you created. I love what it pulls out of me. This is the work I want to do. Challenging and fun. I see the difference of what happens at a Kirtan and this work.
This work very much gives you yourself.
Dan B

I went into that evening session not knowing what to expect, and with the weight of work/relationships/assorted life stresses on my shoulders. I can earnestly say that after our brief two-hour session in the Singing Circle, that weight lifted and I felt free in a new and wonderful way.
What surprised me the most was how deeply I connected – not only with myself but with a general community of strangers from all walks of life. How refreshing it was to make beautiful, original music with so many voices that each held such a unique story within them… The trio work and orchestral exercises… awakened something I thought was dead for a while.
Eileen K

Thank you for making a space for us to shine our lights! I will come more often, it was really fun. So many great people.
Hedi Varga

Kate’s workshops are an invitation – to have fun singing, to connect with your body and your breath, to grow as a singer, to build a vocal community with people that may have been strangers moments before. Kate’s mastery of this work combined with her joyful presence creates a safe space where you can learn and heal and grow. I highly recommend her work.
Jan Hittle

It’s Friday and I still feel the delightful effects of Monday evening.
I remember reading a book on creativity, the idea went something like this:
Creativity can be described as the ability to grasp the essence of one thing, and then the essence of some very different thing, and smash them together to create, some entirely new thing.
Monday evening felt like community, talent, heart & soul, respect, big fat listening all smashed together to create the most important moments in life.
Thank you for the great work. I loved your thoughtful manner in conducting the circle.
Jane Ashe

Your class in unlike anything I have experienced, and, being an adventuress – I have done many trainings.
Kate, I find you a “fascinating creature” to watch. And, I am respectful of your skill at leading a group through very precise movements. Being a beginning Laughter Leader, I appreciate your level of skill.
Judith Weber

Just wanted to say thank you once more for a wonderful evening of song and freeing up the spirit. You inspired us to give our all and the results were tangible. I think each one of us left there a little different in a very positive way than when we came in. Singing like this is so good for the body and soul. I hope it put something positive out into the world and universe too.
Karen K

The circleSong was a wonderfully fresh and joyous occasion filled with inspiring moments and spontaneous connections.
I was filled with a feeling of belonging and connectedness in a room of friends old and new that elevated my spirit.
Katie Down
KatieDown.com

I have to tell you I’ve never felt so connected with the music in my body that way ever. You really opened my body up to the colors and feelings my body naturally…I have never felt a music high and that really was what I consider was a music high .. I had a wonderful time definitely will be coming again. Thank you so much. You are an amazing person.
Kirsten Diebold

It had been a long time since my last sing a long with Kate. In spite of that I felt as if I had entered Into a time warp and ten years had not passed. In fact, it was just yesterday when we were in small intimate sing circle exploring our voices and the feeling of a community circle.
As a leader and as a friend, Kate has this wonderful gift to help you feel relaxed, comfortable and non judging. With that presence she helps to facilitate your own process to explore your voice in the moment. To stay with and be present with whatever may come up and whatever comes out. I truly believe that Kate is a pioneer in this exploration, taking us to depths of voice work that has not been looked at before in Music Therapy. I felt alive and invigorated and able to get in touch with creative juices that I had not been able to explore for some time. Thank you Kate! I am so grateful for your dedication and perseverance to the voice! But most of all I am so grateful for your presence, on many levels.
Laureen Collier

Entering the circle has had a huge impact on my concept of myself as a singer in that I now have a broader image of myself as an instrument that is an integral part of a communal whole. Watching you has taught me so much about how to gently invite and guide singers safely into expression and be open to whatever shifts that need to take place in order to serve the group voice. The joy of being in a circle led by you is watching the ideas form… seeing you take your time and seeing the threads weave together into magnificent forms! I return every week to see what magic will I will experience, whether it be though self discovery or witnessing another participant have a new realm open within them and watch as the whole room shifts into another layer of music’s love unfolding…
Lauren Lane

I have attended one session of Sing for Yourself, and it was a wonderful experience. It has been several years since I have sung and this put me back in touch with the joys of “being in the moment” of singing. Kate started us with gentle exercises that led up to an exhilarating high point of collaboration as an ensemble in the class, and then gently brought us back to our starting point again. I enjoyed the synchronicity of nonverbal communication with other singers which I had not experienced in many years.
Lydia

Circle Singing with Kate is a sweet Limousine ride through beautiful and hauntingly familiar countryside. Kate navigates the road ahead allowing the singer to relax in the back seat feeling the sweet breeze of harmonies and rhythms in a song you’ve never heard, but instinctively feel in your heart. Sit back. Feel the green hills and valleys. Smell the blossoms of music drifting through you.
Martin Swinger
MartinSwinger.bandcamp.com

…the idea of the vocalist as an instrumentalist.  All of the work I’ve done with you has really brought that concept to the forefront – singers don’t necessarily need instruments to make music when they have the capability to build music with each other and they need to converse this way.  Starting a groove, adding harmony, rhythm, counterpoint and then a solo over it tells a story using both words and music.  That exploration is the basis of what I call free flight singing.
Mary Foster Conklin
MaryFosterConklin.com

what surprised me was that how each person knows so much about sounds when a person only starts to have an intention for listening, and for expressing. Each time it becomes a new experience, and when we accept that it is successful without own judgements, we reduce our fear of taking actions, and our fear towards the unknown for the next time. Thank you so much!
Mika Yamamoto

… my deepest gratitude for your presence and your classes in my life. I began in your singing improv by an impulse after experiencing the joy of a pop up singing improv. in Central Park, New York. It was a blessing for me to have been referred to you from that group and it has been an eye opening experience into a new world. I have absolutely zero musical intelligence, never played an instrument, sang a tune or even listened to CD’s on a regular basis, but the experience spoke to something deep within me. I have found your class to be liberating, healing, meditative, a renewable source of energy, a release of the negativity that rears it’s ugly head within me, and a transcendent flow of life that continuously awaits new phases of revealing. This comes from the singing but also from your knowledge as a music therapist, the exercises you choose as well as your acceptance of all those who join, no matter their talents or lack thereof. As if this wasn’t enough, it’s also just plain fun!!
Nancy Reiss

Kate leads circleSinging groups with kindness, patience, and a keen intuition. Joining Kate in a workshop is a positive, life-enhancing experience and I make it a point to work with her whenever I can.
Nik Munson

Kate is one of the tribe of leaders in the field of sound healing.
Working / playing in the framework she provides, I’m much more confident and creative in any musical collaboration, and my daily interactions have become more harmonious and joy-filled… Thank you so much for leading with such unassuming mastery, joy and grace.
Nyei Murez

I was a little worried because it was my first time being in a singing circle. I thought it would be intimidating to sing with very experienced, talented vocalists, but I was wrong. Everybody was so supportive and put me at such ease that I could completely let go and be in the moment. Kate was so attuned to everyone in the room, and when I was a little feeling a little nervous or shy (like when I had to solo), she helped create such a safe space that I didn’t mind singing my first solo in a room with so many people in it. The CircleSong was one of the first times I felt that my mind was connected to my body. Since then, I’ve been so much more open when I sing or perform. It helped me feel less worried about getting things “right,” and helped me connect to a spontaneous, playful part of myself. People who were just strangers at the beginning of the CircleSong felt like they were friends by the end of it.
Omar Mousa Alsayyed

I have observed Kate interacting with medically frail patients and her music is wonderfully sensitive and healing.  She invites the listener to join her in a most gentle and loving way. Her focus is on the patient’s wellbeing and she makes her music personal and inviting to the listener, adapting it to please and invite the listener to join in whatever way the patient can.
I’ve participated in several music wellness sessions with Kate.  She has the ability to engage the group in creating rhythm, vocalizing and harmonizing, improvising and engaging the group in the creative, therapeutic and joyous world of music and song.
Relli Wieselthier