Based in New York City, Katherine Lerner Lee is an avid recitalist and chamber musician, performing repertoire spanning four centuries. Described as “lyricism personified” (Oberon’s Grove), Katherine’s 2025-26 season includes solo appearances in Mozart’s Vespers, and Bach’s St. John’s Passion, as well as the world premiere of Greta: The Fearless with the 21st Century Consort, and a reimagined Handel’s Tolomeo with Opera Essentia, She has been presented in recital by the Cincinnati Song Initiative and Concert Artist Guild, and tours regionally alongside pianists Sophia Zhou, Anthony Ratinov, and Erica Switzer. For the 2026-2027 season, Katherine joins the inaugural cohort of Young Artists with the Brooklyn Art Song Society.
Pianist Erika Switzer performs regularly in major concert settings around the world, including at New York’s Weill Hall (Carnegie), Geffen Hall, Frick Collection, and Bargemusic, at the Kennedy Center, and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Renaud Machart of Le Monde described her as “one of the best collaborative pianists I have ever heard; her sound is deep, her interpretation intelligent, refined and captivating”.
Program to be announced.
This concert is made possible, in part, with the generous support of Ridgeway Garden Center, White Plains, and the Morano Group, LLC, Mamaroneck.
Based in New York City, Katherine Lerner Lee has cultivated a full musical life of performance and teaching. In performance, she prizes deep musical thought and authenticity of expression, particularly enjoying close collaborations with fellow musicians and composers. As a teacher, Katherine passes on her attention to detail and reverence for vocal craft, helping to free and celebrate the voices of students both beginner and advanced. The 2025-2026 season includes Opera Essentia’s distilled productions of Handel’s Radamisto and Tolomeo, appearances with Concerts on the Slope, Brooklyn Art Song Society and solo appearances in Mozart's Vespers and Handel's Messiah.
Katherine holds a double Bachelors in Voice and French from Oberlin College and Conservatory, as well as a Masters in Music from Bard Conservatory. She currently serves on faculty at Manhattan School of Music, Concordia Conservatory and the University of Mount Saint Vincent.
Pianist Erika Switzer is an internationally acclaimed performer of song and chamber music. Her performances have been described as “precise and lucid” by the New York Times and “intelligent, refined, and captivating” by Le Monde. She is currently Associate Professor of Music at Bard College and the Bard Conservatory of Music, where she directs Collaborative Piano Studies. Beginning in the spring of 2027, she will join the faculty at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien (mdw) as Professor of Lied and Oratorio.
Erika Switzer collaborates with a range of top singers and instrumentalists around the world, frequently appearing at festivals and venues including New York’s Weill Hall (Carnegie), Geffen Hall, Frick Collection, and Bargemusic, at the Kennedy Center, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Spoleto Festival (Charleston, SC). With longtime duo-partner, baritone Tyler Duncan, she has recorded two albums on the Bridge label: English Song à la française and A Left Coast. Two further albums for Centrediscs feature the music of Canadian composers Jocelyn Morlock and Andrew Staniland.
As a leader in envisioning and promoting the future of art song performance, she founded the organization Sparks & Wiry Cries in 2009 in collaboration with soprano Martha Guth. “Sparks” commissions new works, presents sparksLIVE events in New York City and songSLAM events internationally, and publishes The Art Song Magazine. Two volumes of songSLAM entries have been published by NewMusicShelf and a series of commissioned works have been published by EC Schirmer.
Following her initial studies at the University of British Columbia, she completed a diploma in song interpretation at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München. During her years in Germany, she won numerous awards, including best pianist prizes at the Robert Schumann and Wigmore Hall International Song Competitions, and began her career as a recitalist. After moving to New York City in 2007, she completed her doctoral studies at The Juilliard School.