Kathryn Thurman

Del City, OK

Kathryn Thurman is a storyteller who uses her musical background to create stories that can be enhanced with different types of music. She has spent the last fifteen years performing in schools, libraries, museums, churches, Girl Scout camps, and community events. She blends her cultural heritage, professional training in the fine arts, experiences as a church choir director and her outdoor environmental education to study and acquire unique musical instruments that will add an educational dimension to her presentations. Each program is crafted with insight, passion, and humor. Add entertaining and inspiring music and her style of performance is perfect for a family audience.

A published Author, Poet, and Book Reviewer, she travels to diverse locations to perform for audiences of all ages, from the preschool children who love puppets, to adult senior groups who need a good laugh and a little nostalgia. With a background involving over fifty theatrical and musical productions, Kathryn brings the spontaneity of the theater into her performances. Her programs can include such instruments as the psaltery, cedar and river cane flutes, slide whistles, finger cymbals, spoons, kazoos,and percussion frogs. When possible, Kathryn adds audience participation and interaction in the story process by singing a song, clapping a lively rhythm, or teaching a dance movement.

Kathryn grew up with Czechoslovakian, Scottish, Irish, and Muskogee Creek stories. Her family stories come from a mixture of what she remembers as a child, and stories she has researched and adapted. She has been playing the Native American flute since childhood, plays woodwind and percussion instruments, and recently added the psaltery.

Kathryn’s Musical Story programs include:
Nature and Environmental Stories / Fairy Tales & Folktales from around the World / Family Stories / Multi-Cultural Stories / Campfire and Ghost Stories / Holiday and Seasonal Stories / Motivational and Inspirational Stories