For over 27 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.

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While actively promoting Miss Branscombe's accomplishments, she, along with the project, has sponsored

concerts of the composer's music in New York City and Boston including "Bringing Back Branscombe to the Upper West Side" and "Winds of Change, Songs of Time: The Musical Legacy of the National League of American Pen Women." On August 15, 2026, The Project will present the concert, "From Picton to the World: Bringing Home the Music of Gena Branscombe" in Picton, Ontario, Canada; Miss Branscombe's hometown. Along with the Co-Founder of the project, Dan Ryan, she recently promoted the upcoming concert with interviews on Picton's Your TV station and radio station 99.3 County FM.

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Recently, Kathleen was Artist-in-Residence at Houghton University where she lectured on Gena's music and life and held master classes for singers and collaborative duos. In addition, she narrated the concert "Bringing Back Branscombe and Friends" which featured faculty and students from the University.

 

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 gave 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.