Kat Reinhert

Visiting Professor

Inspired by a rich background of jazz, folk and popular music styles, while seamlessly weaving story and sound with depth, imagination and creativity, singer and songwriter Kat Reinhert is an artist whose music defies categorization

Reinhert writes songs that blend the complexity of jazz harmonies to the lyrical prosody of a singer-songwriter in an easily accessible aural palette.  She has a clear and expressive voice that can move effortlessly from a secret whisper of longing to a laughter filled explosion as she moves through each story with authenticity and expression. As a lyricist, she draws from both real-life experiences, as well as those made from whole-cloth or sparked by watching the world with through the lens of an observer.  Ever the optimist, Reinhert has a keen ability to dig deep into difficult subjects while never alienating her listeners.

Her first original music appeared on a now archived album released in 2001 and Kat continued to lead and sing with various bands.  In 2008, she released her second album, Chrysalis, her first all-original material release. Reinhert continued to perform throughout NYC as well as lead several national tours. During this time was when she really caught the ‘songwriting bug’.

During the next seven years, Reinhert recorded two albums: Spark, released in 2015 to critical acclaim containing twelve original songs and a RUSH cover, and Home Movie, released in winter 2018, containing nine creative interpretations of folk songs, covers and jazz standards. Spark was produced by David Cook (k) and contains guest artists Julia Pederson (b), Jody Redhage (c), and Jo Lawry, Shayna Steele and Sarah Tolar (bvgs) and both records have Kat’s core band of Perry Smith (g), Sam Minaie (b) and Ross Pederson (d).