Equally at home on the podium and in the board room, Kathryn Harsha is an accomplished Executive Director, pianist, teacher and conductor, and has conducted numerous orchestras and choruses across the country.  

 

Kathryn began her international career as Assistant Conductor of the Chorale des Étudiants Etrangères while at the Sorbonne in Paris. Kathryn completed her Master’s degree in Orchestral Conducting at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and an undergraduate degree at Bluffton University in Bluffton, Ohio, majoring in Piano Performance and Humanities.  For ten years she served as Music Director and Conductor of the Lakeland Civic Orchestra in Kirtland, Ohio, and as the Music Director at Bethany Covenant Church in Lyndhurst. She also served as the Music Director at Disciples Christian Church in Cleveland Heights and as the Music Director of Opera per Tutti, now the Cleveland Opera Theater. 

 

As Executive Director, Kathryn transformed the visionary Carroll County String Project into a thriving studio serving more than 130 students in suburban Baltimore, Maryland. The Opus Community Music School flourished under Kathryn's leadership through successful grant writing, strategic planning and nurturing relationships.

 

Kathryn has been the Music Director of the Sing Out! for Cleveland Rape Crisis Center Benefit Concerts since 2002, where the Visionary Voice award was named in her honor in 2018. She is invigorated by working with Cleveland’s leading citizens in this vital civic effort, and is inspired by the staff and survivors of the CRCC.

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Kathryn currently serves as Associate Director, Accompanist, and Chorus Manager of the Peabody Children's Chorus.