Today we’d like to introduce you to Kirsten C. Kunkle.
Hi, Kirsten; having you on the platform is an honor. Thanks for sharing your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
My name is Dr. Kirsten C. Kunkle. My success is directly tied to my ancestors and the support my family has given me from the onset of my interest in the arts. My mother was a ballerina and a pianist, and she was a fierce advocate for learning through the arts, as well as participating actively in them. I grew up playing piano, clarinet, and violin, dancing ballet, jazz, and tap, and being very involved in acting, theatre, and singing. Singing was what took hold of my life at a very early age, and my focus on becoming a professional singer truly began with my private voice studies at age twelve. I participated in my first opera at age thirteen, in the chorus of “Tosca,” and from there, I knew I would sing the rest of my life.
I grew up listening and loving musical theatre, and began participating in community productions. In high school, I was in all of the school musicals, and I also started singing with the Toledo Opera chorus. By sixteen, when I was auditioning for colleges, I was fully committed to being an opera singer. I remember that I was interviewed by a group called Music Ambassadors, of which I became a part, on my Bowling Green State University campus as a college freshman. In that interview, they asked me what I hoped to accomplish in a career in music. I said that my ultimate goal was to be to opera what Maria Tallchief was to dance. Being a Mvskoke (Muscogee) citizen, I have always embraced my cultural heritage. I would venture to say that I still hope to achieve that goal, lofty as though it may be.
My path was linear to a point. I went through the degree programs for voice performance with a Bachelor of Music from Bowling Green State University, along with a year abroad in Salzburg, Austria, completing both Italian and German minors. Directly after that, I went to University of Michigan and achieved my Master of Music and Doctorate of Musical Arts degrees. I did that by age 26, at which point, my path became a lot less “by the book.” I taught at the collegiate level for seven years, before taking a big leap from academia to the performance and arts administration realm. In 2016, I co-founded an opera company called Wilmington Concert Opera. In 2021, I received my first composition commission. Along the way, I had many special moments in my career, including a Carnegie Hall debut, a European premiere and world premiere recording for NAXOS label, and writing for OPERA America magazine, among many, many other highlights. How I got there is a rather long story, but I will suffice to say that it took much drive, being open to possibilities, and sheer dogged determination and tenacity. Along with all of that, it took support from friends and family, especially considering that a career in the arts is highly unstable and one never knows when success will be abundant or non-existent. It takes a lot of faith in yourself and in your skills, as well as taking high calculated risks that can result in high rewards.
It wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been relatively smooth so far?
I am where I am today because of having wonderful familial support, strong work ethic, endless tenacity, some talent, and a whole lot of networking. There is probably a modicum of luck included in my success, but I think it has more to do with the work that no one sees – the behind-the-scenes efforts, if you will.
I would say that through high school, I had a lot of success and it was quite easy. Once I reached college, my schedule was extremely packed, and I had to navigate being busy all of the time, along with casting becoming increasingly more competitive. I had hurdles that I had to overcome, like anyone else, while learning my field, with aural dictation and piano being my weaker areas. Ironically, the things that I consider to be more difficult for me initially directly play into the work that I do now, and I have become significantly more adept at them than I would have anticipated when I was struggling with them in school. During my doctorate, my mother passed away, and I had to revamp the way I looked at life. We were extremely close, and I think that loss gave me the extra push I needed to make sure that I not only completed the doctorate within my original time frame, but also gave me the impetus to push myself harder to achieve any goal that I set out for myself. The most valuable commodity, in my opinion, is time. If I am working towards something that will ultimately benefit me or improve my life or career, enhance the quality of my life, or help a friend or loved one, then I feel that it is time well spent. The hurdles that I deal with most are those that prevent me from using my time wisely or spending it with family. Being extremely goal oriented, I have had to learn how to navigate relationships with people who approach success differently than I do. Most hurdles are not insurmountable, and I think learning patience and combining that with tenacity has been my most successful way of dealing with them.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might need to become more familiar with what you do, what can you tell them about what you do?
I think one of the things that sets me apart from others in my field is that I strove to be versatile in classical music before it was the popular thing to do. Early on in my career, people were expected to do one thing and do it very well, basically to be a specialist. I would classify myself as a Renaissance Woman of Opera.
My work stems from all different facets of roles in music. I am primarily a classical singer, having worked in everything from new music to musical theatre to oratorio to standard opera. I am the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Wilmington Concert Opera, an exclusively women and minority founded and run company, based in Wilmington, Delaware. I am a librettist and composer with a unique perspective because I come at those from the perspective of being a singer first. Most of my creative works are based on cultural heritage (from my lineage and citizenship in the Mvskoke Nation) and/or feminist activism.
I was featured as a composer and soloist for the Circle of Resilience concert, with Opera Montana (Intermountain Opera Bozeman), in May 2021. From that point on, all new compositions have been commissions. In 2022, I premiered my new art song “Reclaim the Land” at Yellowstone National Park’s 150th anniversary, which has been featured on Yellowstone Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” (a branch of NPR) and BBC Radio. In 2023, I premiered my monodrama for voice, piano, and violin, “Witch of November in the White City” for “Chicago Currents: Celebrating Chicago’s Waterways,” which served as my performance, dramaturgy, poetry, and composition debut with Chicago Fringe Opera. In 2024, my new flute and piano work“Inspiration of the Muses” was premiered by lead commissioners Rose Bishop and Dr. Abbie Brewer at New Music Chicago. Most recently, I created an eight-part a capella choral work entitled “Mvskokvlke, Este’Cate: We are Still Here” (Muscogee People, Native People) by The Trey Clegg Singer in Atlanta Georgia, which premiered in May 2024. I have numerous other works in progress, and am extremely honored to be one of the creators (text and music composition) for mezzo-soprano Molly Noori’s commissioned song cycle, “My Black Swan Songs.”
Something that I’ve done that is very exciting to me is write an opera libretto based on the true-life stories of six women of the French Revolution. That work came to fruition as a complete opera with composer Sarah Van Sciver, which premiered with my company Wilmington Concert Opera in October 2022. In October 2023, we were fortunate to have our first staging of the work at Mission Opera in Santa Clarita, California. For that production, I wore the most hats I have ever worn in a production: Librettist, Stage Director, Choreographer, and singing one of the main roles of Charlotte Corday. In addition, I also performed at numerous outreach events and was part of every production meeting. It was an exceptionally time consuming and exhausting endeavor, but it was also among the most fulfilling opportunities that I have had to date.
Recording has played a major part in my life. I have recorded twenty-eight full operetta and early musical theatre works with Comic Opera Guild of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and recently performed in a Victor Herbert Memorial Concert, which will result in my twenty-ninth recording with the company. I had my European debut as Arabella in “Blindekuh” by Johann Strauss II, with the performance resulting in the world premiere recording of the work with the NAXOS label. I am also featured on the world premiere recording of “Girondines” as Charlotte Corday with Wilmington Concert Opera.
Performing new works is also a major part of my life. I am extremely active in new music and have created many roles with Philadelphia Opera Collective, as well as other groups. I will be involved in three world premieres in the next calendar year with works by composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, including “Loksi’ Shaali’” (Shell Shaker), the world’s first opera entirely in the Chickasaw language.
There are many other facets to my career that make me who I am and give me my unique perspective. I am thrilled that I am able to maintain a wonderful work and life balance with my family, not far from where I grew up. I have discovered that the more that I try to break out of the mold that is expected, the more I am able to thrive as an artist, musician, and human. Truly being myself is the best gift that I have given myself, and it allows me to grow and flourish on a daily basis.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those just starting.
I think there are four things that really secure my success, and I absolutely wish I had known more about them when I was younger.
The first key to success is to be over-prepared. If you are prepared, that’s great. It’s a first step in the right direction. My goal is to be so prepared that it is difficult for me to make mistakes. This doesn’t mean that I’m perfect, by any means, but it sets me up for success more often than not. We are all human, and thus imperfect. However, if we are ultra prepared, we can mentally be able to focus on the moment and the art that we are creating. This applies to any field, however. Luck is simply opportunity meeting preparation. Make sure that your preparation is excellent, always.
Second, network. Spend as much time networking as possible. At this stage in my life, most of my work comes from word-of-mouth or securing a position by direct networking. I spent many years doing auditions and having very little pan out. Nowadays, I rarely audition, and it’s remarkable how much work I am able to get because I have either been reliable in the past (see the first point above) or because someone else will vouch for me. If you don’t know how to network, start simply and engage an interesting person in conversation. Truly sincere interest and engagement opens more doors than most people think possible.
Third, be willing to step outside of your comfort zone and try new things. With great calculated risk can come great rewards. It is imperative that you push yourself on a daily basis to grow, learn, and become a better artist and musician (or whatever your field of choice may be). My best successes in my career, and indeed, in my life in general, have occurred when I have been open to opportunities that I was not entirely sure that I could handle. If I believed that there was a good chance I could succeed, I have been willing to learn “on the job,” so to speak. If you are driven, tenacious, and want to succeed, generally, you can. It may take more time, more effort, or learning new skills, but it is possible to achieve far beyond your wildest dreams. This has been the case for me more often than not.
Fourth, do not ever take good people for granted. Gratitude is one of the most important and under-expressed traits that I see in the professional world. People that are truly grateful for their experiences take the time to thank those who help them get there. They let their colleagues know that they are appreciated. They find time for friends and family who support them and strive to achieve a healthy work/life balance. Grateful people also enjoy the process and the success more than people who just take it for granted. Every day that we are given to live our art, create, and be with people who love and support us is a gift. Once you realize that, you can enjoy the journey, regardless of your level of success, so much more. It will also make you much more adept at finding rewarding experiences that feel successful to you. We are always going towards the next thing, but as I get older, I fully understand the concept of “stopping to smell the roses” and appreciating the present more and more.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kirstenckunkle.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/divavoce
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/kirstenckunkle
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsten-c-kunkle-2836bb13/
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/kirstenckunkle
- soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/kirsten-c-kunkle
- Other: www.wilmingtonconcertopera.com
Image Credits
Jason Dick, LaVonda Josett, Doug Klein, Rachel Mascari, Rachel Meirson, Julie Smith, Reggie Thomas
