Kimberly Gratland James, Mezzo-Soprano, joined the UNLV School of Music faculty in 2017 with more than 20 years of professional performance and teaching experience in vocal music. Previously, she was an associate professor of music at the University of Montana, where she primarily taught applied voice, voice pedagogy, and diction for singers. Currently, James maintains an active applied voice studio and serves as the Associate Director for the School of Music.

James maintains an active performance career, particularly as a concert artist and recitalist. She has performed in concert with the London Sinfonietta, the New World Symphony, the Los Angeles Symphony, and on stage with New Orleans Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, among other organizations. Her performance repertoire is quite diverse, encompassing oratorio works by Bach, operatic repertoire from Purcell to Gordon, and concert works by Verdi, Mahler, Ravel, and contemporary composers. She particularly enjoys chamber music and has enjoyed performing with colleagues from the University of Montana and University of Nevada in local, national, and international venues.

James’s growing passion for bridging the gap between the hard sciences and singing began in 2008 when she completed a vocology certificate program at the National Center for Voice and Speech (NCVS) under Ingo Titze, an internationally-respected voice scientist. Currently, she is engaged in a large literature review project with Titze and others affiliated with NCVS. Her specific research areas for this project are the effects of vocalization on heart rate and blood pressure as well as the effects of vocalization on fluid transport and viscosity changes in organs and tissues. 

Her work has been published in the Journal of Voice(multi-institutional research study), Journal of Singing (book review), and VoicePrints (single author article). She presents posters and invited sessions regularly at regional, national, and international conferences. 

James is a member of the Pan American Vocology Association (PAVA) and has been an active leader in the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and College Music Society (CMS) at the local, regional, and national levels.