Kate Blechinger is an award-winning singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton, Alberta) on Treaty 6 Territory.

Originally from oskana ka-asastēki (Regina, Saskatchewan) on Treaty 4 Territory, Kate has been active in the Western Canadian music scene as a vocalist, bassist, pianist and collaborator since 2013. Kate frequently draws inspiration from the expansive and evocative prairie landscapes of her youth, making music about love, growth, loss, and the interconnectivity of life. Merging different genres, including folk, jazz, pop, and blues, Kate centres sharing human experience at the heart of all her songs. With poetic, playful lyrics, she serves up sincere stories, delivered with “a voice like liquid peace” (CBC News).

Kate’s 2018 debut album, Under a Dancing Sky, features innovative folk-jazz arrangements of Joni Mitchell’s compositions alongside several of Kate’s original compositions. Kate won the Jazz Recording of the Year award at the 2019 Edmonton Music Awards for her version of “Night in the City”, and her album was nominated for the 2020 Julian Award of Excellence for Canadian Jazz Artists by CJSF 90.1 FM (University of Burnaby). Topping the CKUA Community Radio Top 30 Chart in 2019, her album has received airplay on CBC Radio-Canada, CBC Radio Two, and countless campus and community stations across Canada.

Kate's performing career is balanced by her work as an active music educator and mentor in the Edmonton music scene. Kate is an in-demand vocal instructor, as well as the co-creator and writer of the Musical Mornings educational concert series for children ages 1-5, and lead instructor of the Music Box Babies program, both at the Winspear Centre. In recent years, Kate has been trained by renowned Orff specialist, Marcelline Moody, and has begun writing and releasing children's music. You can hear two of her original childrens compositions, “I Don't Wanna Go To Bed Blues” and “amiskwaciy-wâskahikan”, on the Edmonton Public Library's album, Sing it Edmonton: Songs from the Neighbourhood (2025). In March 2026, Kate performed as a guest artist with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra as part of their Symphony for Kids program.

Kate is very honoured to be a resident at Wallace Stegner House in August 2026, and to be the inaugural recipient of the Big Flat Folk Fest Songwriting Grant. Her residency project focuses on writing songs about themes of matriarchy, personal lineage, legacy, and grief and loss. Kate’s maternal grandmother Tressa and family have close personal ties to the neighbouring area of Sidewood, SK, and Kate looks forward to using these familial ties as a lens to explore her own grief. Having experienced several close personal losses, including the loss of her mother Kim in 2020, Kate deeply understands how music has the power to heal, connect, and empower those missing their lost loved ones. Kate has facilitated music in grief/loss spaces, including with people experiencing houselessness through SoLoss and at “Grief Carnivals” in collaboration with Psilocycle.

Link to Website/Social Media:

https://www.kateblechinger.com/

https://www.facebook.com/kblechingermusic

https://www.instagram.com/blechins/

Kate is the recipient of the 2026 Big Flat Folk Fest Songwriter’s Grant which provides $500 and one month free residency. Eastend Arts Council established the grant to ensure the festival provides lasting benefit and support for the songwriting community in Saskatchewan and across Canada.

Kate Blechinger, Vocalist, Composer

James Papoutsis, Writer

Ruth Wellborn, Writer