A voting citizen of the Mvskoke Nation, Dr. Kirsten C. Kunkle has been lauded as the leading Native American soprano in today’s classical music world. She is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Wilmington Concert Opera, the women and minority run opera company based in Wilmington, Delaware. Recent career highlights include making her role debut as the title role in Tosca, singing the soprano solo of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, making her Oklahoma City Philharmonic debut with the world premiere of Jerod Tate’s An American Indian Symphony, her Voices of Ascension debut in the world premiere of Danielle Jagelski’s Voices of Mannahatta, and her PostClassical Ensemble debut singing Knoxville: Summer of 1915 at the Kennedy Center. She has also had the privilege of premiering Tate’s work for soprano and orchestra in Shawnee, Ko’koom’feena, with CityMusic Cleveland. Other career highlights include performing at Carnegie Hall, being featured in the role of Arabella in the NAXOS world premiere recording of Johann Strauss II’s operetta Blindekuh, writing for OPERA AMERICA magazine, and premiering her first opera libretto, Girondines, with composer Sarah Van Sciver. She is extremely involved in new music and recently premiered the role of Ipp’osi’ in the first opera written entirely in the Chickasaw language, Loksi’ Shaali’ by Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate with Canterbury Voices, and also reprised the role for the East Coast Premiere at Mount Holyoke College. She is both reprising the role and producing the new chamber version of the work for the Delaware premiere with Wilmington Concert Opera during the Opera America Conference in May 2026. She is an active composer with numerous commissions from Mountain Time Arts, Chicago Fringe Opera, Trey Clegg Singers, and others. Her composition “Reclaim the Land” was written for the 150th anniversary of Yellowstone National Park and has been featured on All Things Considered through Yellowstone Public Radio/NPR and BBC Radio. She is a proud graduate of Bowling Green State University and University of Michigan, as well as having studied at the University of Salzburg.
Kirsten is thrilled to be collaborating with her Chickasaw friend and colleague, poet Lokosh (Joshua D. Hinson) to create the new art song Waawo’at kochcha (The Cicadas Emerge) for Sing Out Strong with White Snake Projects.