Nazareth, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium
Katrien Van Opstal graduated as a jazz- and pop-singer at School of Arts, Ghent (2009), Belgium, later specializing in jazz and vocal technique. In 2015, she earned a scholarship to study style, vocalese, and lyrics writing with her mentor Justin Binek at the University of North Texas. She is also a certified Estill Voice Training Master Trainer.
In January 2018, Katrien started the research project "Style, Sound and Voice Production in Vocal Jazz" at Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp (RCA). This project resulted in the development of the Mixing Table Model, a model to clarify vocal technique in jazz. In 2020, she began to work on the project "Clarifying Vocal Jazz: from insight to practice," along with her friend Vanessa Matthys, a wonderful singer and teacher, under the guidance of Hendrik Braeckman and Eugeen Schreurs from RCA. In September 2021, they began working on a new project, “The Singer Inside Out”. She presented her findings on conferences like PEVOC (Pan-European Voice Conference), AEC Pop and Jazz Conference and Estill Europe Summit.
As a performer, Katriens credits are diverse. She was the lead singer in the jazz trio The Triplettes, has sung with many big bands, and collaborated with national and international musicians like as Hendrik Braeckman (BE), Roni Ben-Hur (NY) en Justin Binek (KS). For the band "Centerpiece", she wrote lyrics to the music of Toots Thielemans.
Katrien loves to teach. She works mainly at Kunstenacademie Waregem in the jazz-, pop- and rock-department. In Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp, she teaches vocal technique and research practice in vocal jazz. She taught jazz singers at School of Arts Ghent, actors at Secundair Kunstinstituut Ghent and classical singers at Haute Ecole de Musique in Geneva, Switzerland. She also teaches privately in “GelijkgeSTEMd”.
Saturday, January 7, 2023
12:00 PM – 12:50 PM US EST