Washington National Opera Names Inaugural Recipient of Award for Nonbinary and Transgender Singers

Katherine Goforth has won the first “True Voice Award” which provides training and opportunities for trans and nonbinary opera singers

Announced in recognition of International Transgender Day of Visibility, Washington National Opera’s (WNO) True Voice Award (TVA) is awarded every three years and was developed to increase the visibility and create more space in opera for artists who identify as transgender or nonbinary. 

The TVA was created by filmmaker and librettist Kimberly Reed and created in partnership with composer Laura Kaminsky and opera librettist Mark Campbell — the collaborative team behind the opera As One. 

As the inaugural recipient of the TVA, Katherine Goforth will receive career training, artistic coaching, a performance with the Cafritz Young Artists, a $5,000 cash prize, plus be presented by WNO on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center in a recital in May 2024. 

Goforth, a transgender woman, has appeared in performances at Oper Köln, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Portland Opera, and Bozeman Symphony, among others. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School and St. Olaf College, plus attended the Franz Schubert Institut, Britten-Pears Young Artist Program, Heidelberger Frühling Liedakademie, Georg Solti Accademia, and Boston Wagner Institute. 

Awarded the Career Advancement Award from the Dallas Symphony at its fourth Women in Classical Music Symposium, Goforth is also a member of the Trans Opera Alliance and is currently serving as dramaturg and stage director for Opera Theater Oregon’s Nu Nah-Hup, an operatic work. 

Her recent performances have included the tenor solo in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Bozeman Symphony, Walla Walla Symphony, and Yakima Symphony; the tenor solo in Puccini’s Messa di Gloria with Vancouver Symphony (USA); Spoletta in Tosca with Portland Opera; and roles in two premieres for Seattle Opera’s Jane Lang Davis Creation Lab. She recently held residencies at Boston Conservatory and Whitman College.

As part of the TVA and in collaboration with San Francisco's Opera Parallèle, Goforth will also be appearing on August 8–9, 2024 in Expansive: A Showcase for Transgender & Non-Binary Classical Artists — a new annual showcase in the world’s first and only legally recognized transgender district in San Francisco celebrating the culture, resilience, and resistance of transgender people through arts programming for and led by them. 

“I am very lucky to be living in a time when there are national arts organizations that are willing to support and foster trans artists,” Goforth said in the press release. “I hope that this award will mean that I am at the beginning of a career in which I can work, connect, create, and live fully as myself, and that we will model what our opera industry could be: a place where every artist gets to fully self-actualize and every person has a right to self-determination. My heartfelt thanks go out to WNO, the selection committee members, and to Mark, Laura, and Kim, who created this award.”

“Katherine Goforth is a perfect choice for the inaugural TVA,” Reed added. “She personifies the artistry and activism that this award represents. Not only does Katherine set the bar for future recipients, she is a singer who will raise awareness and uses her platform to lift up other trans and nonbinary singers.”

“At Washington National Opera, we are committed to artistic citizenship,” said WNO’s artistic director Francesca Zambello. “That takes many forms, but one of the most important is actively working to create a world in which all people can be celebrated for their authentic selves.”

Founded in 1956 and an artistic affiliate of the Kennedy Center since 2011, WNO has staged over 100 new productions, plus world premieres, international tours, live recordings, and radio broadcasts. Among the company’s most successful education and community engagement programs include the American Opera Initiative (AOI), The Cafritz Young Artist Program, The WNO Opera Institute, Opera in the Outfield®, the Student Dress Rehearsal Program, and The WNO Young Associates program, among others.