Kate Munger

Kate Munger has been passionate about community singing since she was 8 years old at Girl Scout Camp and has led community singing now for over 40 years. In 2000 she founded the first of now more than 200 Threshold Choirs around the world. Today at almost 69 she is retired and has returned to her passion of singing at the bedsides of people who are dying, in coma and with folks who are incarcerated. She is a popular speaker among palliative care and prison reform professionals at conferences and is a gracious, skillful musical host and choral director whose joy is reminding us that we are singing beings, bringing community singing back to "the community.” Kate knows that this work is deep and serious and she offers a fresh, lively, sometimes irreverent, always relevant perspective. The Threshold Choir sprang from Kate’s inspiration and commitment to inclusivity, music excellence, creativity from all participants, creating community from an Internet phenomenon, a welcoming and gracious presence, both on line, at rehearsals and at bedsides, deep listening, respect for every voice and especially to kindness as a guiding principal. Kate's many original beautiful songs provide a beloved framework for the vast and lively repertoire; they honor and normalize life, death and all the space between and beyond.