Biography

Known for her burnished velvet tone and understated yet beguiling stage presence, Teri Kowiak’s gift for storytelling draws her audiences into her world. Teri finds her home at the extreme ends of vocal repertoire, holding a fascination for both the early notation of the middle ages and works by living composers where the ink is barely dry. Valued as both a soloist and collaborator, Teri has performed early and new music works with Cappella Clausura, Wholetone Opera, Red Shift, and Vox Futura.

Teri’s programming offers the stories modern audiences need: whether to support awareness of current issues or to reawaken experiences modern society has forgotten or shut out. Teri has performed in venues ranging from Baton Rouge’s St. Joseph Cathedral to the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City and Saint Matthew’s United Church in Halifax. Teri’s adventures have led to performances in black box theatres, banks, jewelry stores, private homes, blood drives, K-12 schools, and occasionally, subways.

Teri’s love of medieval music and her determination to bring it out of the textbooks and into the world led her to found Meravelha, an ensemble of singers and instrumentalists. Teri has served as artistic director since their first performance in 2012, designing multimedia concerts that include medieval art (and sometimes food!). Meravelha has collaborated in performance with Seven Times Salt and other early music specialists, and has been featured on the Society for Historically-Informed Performance (SoHIP) Summer Concert Series multiple times.

Teri’s work in new music includes premieres and recordings of works by Patricia Van Ness, Hilary Tann, Kile Smith, and Timothy Takach, as well as forays into theatrical ventures. She fulfilled her secret dream of portraying a zombie onstage in Wholetone Opera’s debut production of La Zombiata, performing to sold-out houses at the Davis Square Theatre in Somerville, MA. She joined both the cast and the artistic team for Wholetone’s next project, The Werewolf, based on Louis Bertin’s 19th century opera, Le Loup-Garou. Teri crafted a new English libretto for the opera that reflected changes made to the story and added a transformation aria for the werewolf. She sang the role of “Raimbaut” in the world premiere at the Davis Square Theatre.

Teri holds a Master of Music in Early Music from Longy School of Music and a Bachelor of Music in Performance from Ithaca College. She lives in Watertown, MA with her husband, cat, and 63 dragons.