06/17/2026
Please join us in welcoming Dr. Kathryn Wert to Bethel University. Dr. Wert will be serving as our new Director of Instrumental Activities and conductor of the Bethel Wind Symphony beginning Fall 2026. Welcome back to Minnesota, Dr. Wert!
Dr. Kathryn Wert (Voelker) is associate professor of music, director of instrumental studies, and director of the Wind Symphony at Bethel University. Dr. Wert is an accomplished music director, accompanist, and conductor, and returns to her home state of Minnesota following 20 years of prolific educational and performance experience across the country and around the globe.
Most recently, Dr. Wert served on the faculty at Liberty University from 2013 to 2026. While there, she established the first University Band—which grew to 90 members in its first four years—and conducted the Symphony Orchestra, with whom she premiered the concert version of Amazing Grace: The Broadway Musical. In addition to her ensemble work, she helped develop Liberty’s M.A. in Music Education and advised more than 20 doctoral and master’s theses. During her time in Virginia, she also served as the music director for the Alluvion Stage Company and Masterworx theater companies, leading regional premieres of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Jason Robert Brown’s Parade.
Dr. Wert’s research focuses on the role of music theory elements in dramatic storytelling, particularly among musical theater composers. She is also passionate about music learning theory and creating relevant, accessible music education for all students.
Prior to her tenure at Liberty, Dr. Wert spent several years as a music director for the Candlelight Dinner Playhouse (CO) and the Allenberry Resort Inn and Theater Company (PA). As the Music Director of the Amici Opera Company in Philadelphia under impresario Raffaele Tudisco, she performed 18 operas on piano in a single season. Her extensive performance credits as a flutist and conductor span Europe, China, and the U.S., including collaborations with the National Repertory Orchestra, Spoleto Festival Orchestra, Music Academy of the West, Rochester Philharmonic, Charlottesville Ballet, and Lynchburg Symphony.
Dr. Wert’s foundational teaching career includes three wonderful years in Pennsylvania at the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Performing Arts and Faith Christian School, where she taught band, orchestra, choir, music history, theory, and musical theater. She also spent summers directing music for the Lyric Italia program in Italy and leading student theater camps in New York.
She holds a B.Mus. in Piano Performance from Bethel University, an M.A. in Music Education from the Eastman School of Music (where she served as student conductor of the Eastman Wind Ensemble and Wind Orchestra), and a D.A. in Wind Conducting from the University of Northern Colorado. Her secondary emphasis during her doctoral work was a study in collaborative piano, and she frequently performs in a variety of collaborative settings. Her primary conducting mentors include Steven Thompson, Mark Davis Scatterday, Richard Mayne, and Kenneth Singleton; her piano studies were with Carolyn Nordquist, Vincent Lenti, and Caleb Harrs.
Dr. Wert’s commitment to Christian education is rooted in her own time as a student at Bethel, where she was a chapel worship leader, won the Performance Prize and Concerto/Aria Competition on flute her freshman year, and then after graduation toured with the Bethel Royal Players ministry team. It was at Bethel where she deepened her knowledge and experience of God and her commitment to Him, and she knows that all her performance and educational opportunities have only been because of the wonderful grace of Jesus Christ. Her family is her greatest earthly joy: her husband and her three daughters, the youngest of whom is in heaven.
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