Katie Small

Founder & Executive Director

757 . 254 . 5284   |   smalloperacompany@gmail.com

Katherine Oates Small has “a lovely mezzo soprano voice and sings with consistent sweetness of tone and dramatic commitment. There is wonderful diversity in her repertoire and I particularly admire how her voice sustains depth throughout the fireworks of Rossini and also keeps its ring throughout the more sorrowful moments of Massenet.” (Carnegie Hall Weill Music Institute).  She has performed numerous leading roles to much acclaim including:  Carmen (Carmen), Charlotte (Werther), Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Jo (Little Women), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Elizabeth Proctor (The Crucible), Papagena (The Magic Flute), Maria (The Sound of Music), Queen (Once Upon a Mattress), Hermia (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Pitti-Sing (The Mikado), Ruth (Pirates of Penzance), Mayor (Stone Soup), Ernesto (Billy Goats Gruff), and Gertrude McFuzz & Sam I Am (A Seussome Twosome).  In Atlanta, Katie received the Atlanta Opera Guild Scholarship Award, won the Brumby Concerto Competition, and competed as a finalist in the Advanced Women category of the Southeast NATS competition.  She served as a director of the Atlanta chapter of Opera on Tap and founded Small Opera, her compact company bringing pop-up opera to the community!  After moving to Charleston in 2017, Post and Courier praised her "big ambition" stating, "With command of these roles and the sundry arias each character sings, Small has created for herself a great operatic foundation from which she launched her opera company..." Katie and SMOP have also been featured in Charleston City Paper, North Charleston Arts Fest, Charleston Library Society Series, Piccolo Spoleto, North Charleston Pops! Symphony (alongside Grammy-winning Charlton Singleton), Charleston Riverdogs/Stingrays/Battery games, and TEDxCharleston. Most recently, Katie was the Featured Artist in the September 2026 issue of Charleston Magazine following SMOP’s successful Sip and Stroll Art Walk for Piccolo Spoleto.