Kari Francis

Dr. Kari Francis is a choral musician whose work explores the resonant spaces between improvisation, early music, and the unbounded freedom of the human voice. She can be heard singing with the NYC-based choir Choral Chameleon and beatboxing on Season 3 of NBC’s The Sing-Off with Kinfolk 9 and on GRAMMY-winner Cory Smythe’s album Accelerate Every Voice. Her approach to ensemble directing centers living and historically underrepresented voices as part of equitable, creative, and learner-centered pedagogies, while her composing merges elements of psalmody, vocal jazz, renaissance polyphony, and contemporary a cappella. She has written chapters for books published by GIA Music and the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and maintains an active schedule as a guest conductor and clinician. Kari is the Director of Choral Activities at Bowdoin College and the choir director of The Walden School Young Musicians Program.

Kari holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Teachers College Columbia University, the University of California at San Diego, and the University of Notre Dame. She is composer-in-residence at St. Matthew Catholic Church in Detroit, Michigan. Her doctoral thesis, Not An Object But Motion: Choral Improvisation Through Vocal Painting, offers techniques for conductors to foster individual and collective artistic agency in choral ensembles while expanding concert programming to include collaboratively realized works.