Too big, too loud and too much. 

Katrina Waters grew accustomed to past teachers and mentors describing her voice this way. While conducting interviews for her doctoral research, Katrina discovered other mezzo-sopranos shared a similar experience. 

“What I didn’t expect was how the stories of my interviews would help me not only find ownership over my large and loud voice but also find agency to amplify the voices of other women in my industry,” Katrina reflected.

Her research evolved into Songs for Loud Women. The five-song cycle uses her interview transcripts from conversations with women who have sung the role of Brünnhilde in Wagner’s Ring cycle to reinterpret the character’s story. At the 2025 Tessitura Learning & Community Conference in Melbourne, Australia, Katrina shared insights that extend beyond opera.

“When you go back to your organisations, think about whose voices are missing from your storytelling, your programming, your leadership.”

With Songs for Loud Women, Katrina illuminated how research results can live outside of reports or dashboards. “Sometimes the most powerful thing to do with data is to transform it into something that people can feel,” she remarked.

“Platforming underrepresented voices requires intentional choices,” Katrina advised. There’s a reason Katrina chose women composers to create Songs for Loud Women. She observed that when the demographic always sways in a single direction, as it historically has in the opera world, certain voices don’t get heard. Stories remain untold. 

“When you go back to your organisations, think about whose voices are missing from your storytelling, your programming, your leadership … Think about the value of mid-career artists, and the value they bring to your organisations,” she encouraged the audience. “Maybe, like Brünnhilde, they weren’t sleeping in the ring of fire. Maybe they were waiting for the right moment to burn it all down and build something better.”

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Katrina Waters presented this talk as part of Tessitura’s Innovator Series at the Tessitura Learning & Community Conference in Melbourne, Australia, in November 2025.