For over 20 years Ms. Shimeta has put forth the music of Canadian/American composer Gena Branscombe.  Her CD, Ah! Love, I Shall Find Thee: Songs of Gena Branscombe is on the Albany Records label.  In addition, she co-authored and performed a one-woman show about the composer, Life! Love! Song!  A Visit with Gena Branscombe.

 

She is co-founder and Chair of The Gena Branscombe Project, a not-for-profit organization that promotes the performance of Miss Branscombe’s art songs, chamber music, instrumental works and piano pieces.  In addition The Gena Branscombe Project is awarding yearly scholarships to a student conductor, composer and Arts Administrator.

 

For her work researching and recreating the orchestral score for a revival performance of Gena Branscombe’s dramatic oratorio, Pilgrims of Destiny, the Library of Congress interviewed her for their Researcher’s Blog and The Gazette.  The original and only  conductor’s score is held at the Library.

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In June and July 2022, for their monthly national meeting, The League of American Pen Women invited Ms. Shimeta to present her speech, Bringing Branscombe Back to the National League of American Pen Women: A Composer Lost, Now Found!  She will give this speech to the Santa Clara, CA chapter in November 2022.

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Invited to write articles about Miss Branscombe’s life and music, Kathleen has been published in The WomenArts Journal, the Sigma Alpha Iota Pan Pipes magazine, the Association of Canadian Women Composers Journal and others.  The International Alliance for Women in Music invited Ms. Shimeta to write a CD review for their publication.  She has presented at the Women Composers Conference at Indiana University in Indiana, PA and at the Women in the Arts Conference at the University of Missouri St. Louis. 

 

Ms. Shimeta received her Bachelor's degree from St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minnesota and her Master of Music from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati.