Artistic Director

Kourtney Strade, M.A.

Kourtney received her Bachelor of Science in Vocal Music Education from Northwest Missouri State University and her Master’s degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Conservatory of Music. She is currently an instructor of voice for the Community Music School of Webster University and is the director of music at Lafayette Park United Methodist Church. Additionally, Kourtney received a Certificate of Vocology from the University of Iowa, and she uses this expertise in her own business, Heartland Healthy Voices, providing vocal health seminars, private voices lessons, and transgender voice training. Ms. Strade is also an accomplished mezzo-soprano and has performed on stages across the United States in opera, oratorio, and recital. Recent roles include Freddie in The Vegans of Provincetown, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and Joan in the monodrama Jehanne de Lorraine. Kourtney has served as a singing voice consultant for the University of Iowa Voice Clinic, and worked as a clinician in Voice Diagnostics. In her private studio, Ms. Strade has helped many persons strengthen his/her singing voice following a voice disorder, and several of her students have gone on to become performance scholarship recipients and competition winners. As an active member in the National Association for Teachers of Singing, the Music Educators National Conference, and a recent consultant for the Choral Journal, the national publication of the American Choral Directors Association, Kourtney is well-respected in the voice field and continues to make her mark as a musician and a specialist in vocal health. Serving as the Artistic Director for CHARIS is an exciting opportunity for her, and she is looking forward to beginning her work with the chorus in January.