BIOGRAPHY

With a “brilliant” voice that “charms” and “sparkles on stage”,* Karin Timmerman is a music performer, teacher, and enthousiast. Karin has had the privilege to study with voice teachers Henk Neven, Alison Nystrom, Gail Suderman and Melanie Krueger, where she developed her love of music and classical singing. In 2010, she followed her passion for singing by beginning her bachelor studies in classical vocal performance at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Canada. 

Following her bachelor’s, Karin decided to continue her studies in the Netherlands. In 2017, she received the Grada van Beek-Donner Scholarship, a full music scholarship for the 2017-2018 academic year, and began her master’s studies at Codarts Conservatory Rotterdam, where she studied with Dutch baritone, Henk Neven.  In July 2019, she graduated cum laude from Codarts with her Master of Classical Voice. She has performed ‘Cleopatra’ with the Codarts Opera Production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare as well as the role of of ‘Fiordiligi’ in Codarts’ 2018 production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. In the summer of 2017 she sang ‘Eurilla’ in the Mozarteum’s production of Haydn’s opera Orlando Paladino in Salzburg, Austria. Alongside her stage performance, Karin has an extensive concert and lieder repertoire ranging from: Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Coronation Mass, works by Debussy, Britten, Berg, Schoenberg to Ravel’s Shéhérazade.  

Alongside her studies, Karin has also participated in various competitions. In the Kiwanis Fraser Valley International Music Festival (Canada) she won first prize for a song cycle and second prize for operatic solo along with the James R. Ontko Provincial Delegate Award Classical Voice – Senior Class and Davaughn Studio Awards. She also won first place in the NATS Vancouver Chapter Songfest Intermediate Division Three. In April 2018 Karin was a finalist in the Prix d’Harmonie Competition in Rotterdam where she won the “Publieks prijs” (Audience Prize). In March 2020 she was a semi-finalist in the International Student LiedDuo competition.

Karin has had the opportunity to perform in masterclasses with great pedagogues and performers such as: Margreet Honig, Rhoslyn Jones, David Jones, Charlotte Margiono, Marcel Reijans, Bernard Turgeon, Charlotte Riedijk, Frans Huijts, and Martyn van den Hoek. 

During her master’s studies at Codarts Rotterdam, Karin had the opportunity to conduct research where she explored and developed her skills as an interdisciplinary performer. She researched and experimented with the integration of classical voice and contemporary dance, creating an original vocal-dance performance of Ravel’s Shéhérazade. This included intensive contemporary dance training, original choreography, and the development of an interdisciplinary performance practice. The outcome of this research was presented to the public in June of 2019.

During the COVID-19 pandemic Karin was one of three artists in Nicole Jordan’s documentary art film Lockdown Baby. In this film about pregnant performers during the COVID-19 lockdown, she created a performance that combined the disciplines of poetry, dancing and singing. Lockdown Baby has since been selected as a Semi-Finalist in New York International Women Festival, Exceptional Merit Award for Documentary at WRPN Women’s International Film Festival and has won Best Women Empowerment Short Award at Florida Short Film Festival

Karin is creator and co-founder of SOMA ensemble, a collaborative interdisciplinary collective that works to bring music and movement together. She will be performing with SOMA ensemble throughout the 2022/2023 season. This season she will also be performing as soloist in a number of projects including the Mozart Coronation Mass and Vespers with HKKR and as Dafne in Handel’s Apollo e Dafne with Apollo Ensemble.

*Nancy Hermiston, Kiwanis Fraser Valley International Music Festival, 2016