Assistant Professor
Soprano
E-Mail: karisa.templeton@ndsu.edu
Office: 218F Music Education Building
Phone: (701) 231-7463
Degrees
- D.M., Indiana University Jacobs School of Music
- M.M., Westminster Choir College
- B.M., Cedarville University
Soprano Karisa L. Templeton is Assistant Professor of Voice at North Dakota State University, joining the faculty in 2020 after previous teaching positions at Wabash College and The University of Evansville. An active performer of opera and avid art song enthusiast, she performs frequently in recital and concert. She greatly enjoys programming recitals of lesser-known vocal gems and highlighting compositions from historically underrepresented groups including women and composers of color. Her former students have won vocal competitions and been accepted into prestigious graduate school vocal programs.
As an educator, Karisa has a strong enthusiasm for the anatomy and physiology of the voice, the physics of sound, historical and present theories of teaching singing, and diverse vocal repertoire. Her current research focuses on developing an innovative voice pedagogy curriculum for music educators and performers. In addition to teaching and performing, Karisa has enjoyed a varied career that has included working as a vocal masterclass clinician, serving as Choral Director of the Wabash Glee Club, and directing collegiate and church handbell ensembles. From 2008 to 2011, she lived and taught in China, where she taught international high school students in Beijing and Tianjin. Her time in Asia also prompted her to research culturally responsive pedagogy practices for the applied music studio
Karisa has sung with Opera on the Avalon, The Princeton Opera Festival, New Voices Opera, Reimagining Opera for Kids, and the Beijing Festival Chorus. Her operatic roles include Helena from MA Midsummer Night’s Dream (Britten), Cleopatra from Giulio Cesare (Handel), Donna Elvira from Don Giovanni (Mozart), Sifare from Mitridate (Mozart), Queen from The True Story of Cinderella (Martin), Dido from Dido and Aeneas (Purcell), and Laurie from The Tender Land (Copland).
A native Ohioan, Karisa has a B.M. in Music Education with an emphasis in Voice and Choral studies from Cedarville University, an M.M in Voice Performance & Pedagogy from Westminster Choir College, and she did her doctoral coursework at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
