Cate is a gifted teacher of singing and a remarkably versatile musician. She magically identifies subtle ways my body and inner attitudes affect my communication as a professional singing actress. She then gently, but systematically, works to strengthen and relieve those blocks. I value her opinions highly. My only criticism is that there is not enough of her to go around!
Cathryn Frazier-Neely, Soprano
Cate’s professional singing career focused on contemporary chamber music, chamber opera, recital, oratorio and as soloist with orchestras. She has premiered numerous American art songs in eight languages and has worked with such American composers as John Cage, Clare Shore, Lori Laitman and Lynne Steele.
She received consistent outstanding media reviews for her work in opera (“CFN sang with vocal suppleness and emotional depth,” The Washington Post;) oratorio (“…her high B-flats saved the Kyrie … she sang with accomplishment and charm,” The Pilot, Southern Pines, NC;) recital (“style and confidence… a whole program full of bright ideas and relatively neglected repertoire,” The Washington Post;) and in concert with local orchestras (“..ravishing delivery…one longs to hear this soprano sing the gem-like solo in Mahler’s wintry fourth symphony” Fairfax Journal. )
Highlights of past seasons include singing full solo recitals of Nordic art songs at the New House of Sweden for the Smithsonian, at the Levine School of Music/Strathmore Hall for the American Scandinavian Association, and at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in conjunction with their exhibit, “Nordic Cool: Hot Female Designers.” She also has opened Piccolo Spoleto’s Contemporary Music Festival, appeared as soprano soloist with the John Cage Festival Orchestra, and in a recital of American folk songs at the U.S. Capitol Building for the Supreme Court.
B.C.—”BEFORE CHILDREN” –Opera/musical theater credits include the roles of “Fiordiligi” in Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte, “The Mother” in Amahl and the Night Visitors, “The Mother,” “Sandman” and “The Dewfairy” in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretal, “Elizabeth” in Samuel Barber’s Hand of Bridge, and one season with The Washington National Opera’s professional chorus.
A.C.—”AFTER CHILDREN”–a reading of the musical, “Reunion” at Signature Theater; “Aslan, the Lion” (the first woman cast in this role) in Thomas Tierney’s Narnia, and in a Washington area tour of Robert Kapilow’s Green Eggs and Ham, as The Grouch. [audio clip mp3 | audio clip mp3] She also trained the boy altos who appeared, double-cast, as Sam-I-Am.
In 2010, Cate was awarded an “Independent Teacher’s Fellowship” from The National Association of Teachers of Singing for her success as an independent teacher outside of a school or college. Cate is a former third-place national winner in The Contemporary Record Society’s National Soloists’ Competition and was awarded one of eight study scholarships for DC area artist/teachers by the National Endowment for the Arts and the H. Wesley Balk Opera/Music Theater Institute.
She comes from a family of professional musicians, including her musician-educator parents, Robert and Angelene Frazier; brothers Jim Frazier, a Nashville producer/arranger/artist whose original music can be heard on TV’s America’s Next Top Model hosted by Tyra Banks; and Mark W. Frazier, award-winning composer/organist who is Director of Music Ministries at South Congregational Church of Concord, New Hampshire; son Adam Neely, bassist and composer, in grad school at the Manhattan School of Music, and cousin, Jordon Frazier, double bassist for the internationally renowned Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
Audio Clips
- All That Gold (mp3) Cate as the Mother’s in “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” by G.C. Menotti, with The Amadeus Orchestra under the direction of Timothy Rowe, 1986.
- Green Eggs & Ham 1 (mp3) Cate as The Grouch in Robert Kaplow’s “Green Eggs and Ham”, with Karen Bartman, piano and Robin Zimmerman as Sam-I-Am, The Levine School of Music, Washington DC area tour: Children’s Hospital, 1999.
- Green Eggs & Ham 2 (mp3)
