biographical info
For 16-year-old Vancouver singer/songwriter Kate Kurdyak, music has been a big part of her life for as long as she can remember. She started playing the violin at age 4 and played with the Vancouver Youth Symphony Intermediate Orchestra for three years. She is currently in grade 11 in the Arts Program at Lord Byng Secondary School in Vancouver where she studies the violin and viola and plays with Lord Byng Symphony Honors Orchestra. She started studying the piano at age 12 and is currently working on her RCM grade 9. Two years ago, she began picking up the guitar and has been trading homemade chocolate chip cookies for guitar lessons with one of the boys at her school. Kate has been singing with children's choirs since the age of 7-first the Vancouver Bach Choir and more recently, Zing! Children's Choir. When Kate isn't doing music, she enjoys lifeguarding, softball, creative writing and hanging out with friends. She currently lives with her family and a border collie named Rowan. Kate made her first foray into song writing at the age of 12. She entered a song in 2010 into the CBC's OTC Unplugged contest for High School Singer-Songwriters in the Lower Mainland and placed in the top 10. Kate can be found playing in local coffeehouses in and around Vancouver or busking on sunny days at Granville Island.
Influences: K.D. Lang, Leonard Cohen, Jamie Cullum, Glen Hansard, Dan Mangan, Damien Rice, Coldplay, Patrick Watson, Joni Mitchell, Mumford & Sons, John Williams and The Beatles. Bach, Tchaikovsky and Chopin for inspiring my love of classical music and my grandmother for introducing me to music before I could walk and talk.