About Kate Hopkins
Born in Abilene, Texas and raised in Houston, I began a professional career singing lead soprano in the vaudevillian show at the Crystal Palace in Astroworld. While in Houston, I developed skills as a jazz/blues/big band singer by working with Buddy Brock’s Big Band, duos with Randall Dollahon (jazz guitarist), and singing with numerous bands around town. My primary band for several years was a pop/rock group called “Tomorrow’s Sunshine” which took a U.S.O. tour for several months to Alaska, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Guam, the Marshall Islands, Wake and Hawaii. Our later venues were in Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, New York, New Jersey, and the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. I moved to San Francisco in the seventies and sang jazz in the Marina District before moving to Los Angeles. There I did session work for commercials such as Mogen David Wine, Neutrogena, public service announcements (PSA), back-up on a Helen Reddy album and for Capitol Record album projects.
I taught private singing lessons and was a mentee of Florence Riggs. I became a member of A.F.T.R.A and A.S.C.A.P. and co-produced a demo of my original songs. While acquiring a Bachelor of Arts degree in communicative disorders at California State University, Northridge I discovered a strong love of working with young children and their families in early intervention programs using the power of music. A program called “Singing With My Baby” was born from graduate studies in special education at California State Northridge and from my experiences as the lead teacher of the infant/toddler room at the Almansor Center, a special education school in South Pasadena, California for all ages. I moved to Austin with my son in 1994 and soon after became the lead singer with “Swing Time”, an 18 piece big band led by John Pearson.
Singing jazz around Austin, I had some wonderful gigs, including singing with Rich Harney. I expanded my musical experience in the past few years by singing contemplative spiritual music deepening my love of music. Then my cousin, Diane, got this crazy idea that I should sing “Happy Birthday” to her friends and family, and that I should do that for other people. She said she liked my voice better. “Why not?”, I said. It sounded like too much fun not to.
Samples of Kate's Beautiful Singing