Composer // Director // Bookwriter // Lyricist // Producer // Vocalist // Poet
"I live in music."
— ntozake shange
Katie is a composer, director, bookwriter, lyricist, producer, vocalist and poet based in the Canarsie and Munsee Lenape land known as Brooklyn. She is a 2022 and 2021 Jonathan Larson Award finalist, and was seen in conversation with New York Times best selling author Ibi Zoboi debuting a digital commission she produced with Kweli Journal. Katie was featured in Lincoln Center's Summer for the City Festival in July of 2022 where she shared 10 original compositions arranged for voice, piano, acoustic guitar, upright bass, percussion, and cello. Her show SUN SONGS (music, lyrics, vocals, arrangements, casting, direction & dramaturgy by Katie Madison, book, direction and dramaturgy by Deborah Cowell) was workshopped with New York Stage and Film as part of their 2022 summer programming at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Katie and her girlfriend Deborah Cowell were photographed and featured in Laylah Amatullah Barrayn's NPR piece "Black Love inspired me. Making these portraits renewed my spirit." She is part of the inaugural cohort of the Hi-ARTS Artspace Exchange Program in collaboration with the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts.
A 2021 New York Stage and Film Founders Award finalist, Katie was one of three featured emerging artists in the 2021 Crossroads Theatre Genesis Festival.
In August of 2021, Katie used her New York City Artist Corps Grant to produce, direct and perform in a concert of her work at the historic Weeksville Heritage Center. Katie was a Critical Breaks Resident with Hi-Arts in April 2021 developing her new musical SUN SONGS.
She was chosen by The Downtown Alliance in collaboration with En Garde Arts and The Tank to re-open New York City in their first live performance post pandemic which was featured in Vogue, New York Magazine, and Vulture. Her work has been commissioned by the University of Michigan’s Musical Theatre Department, New York Stage and Film, Crossroads Theatre Company, American Opera Project, The Civilians, Milwaukee Skylight Theatre, The Tank, Judson Memorial Church, Rockwood Music Hall, and Dixon Place. She has also produced and performed work at 54 Below, Don't Tell Mama, The Stonewall Inn, The Dramatists Guild, Playwrights Horizons and with Broad Views on Broadway and Multicultural Womxn in Theatre.
She also volunteers with the 52nd Street Project as a composer. In 2019, Katie’s show [ taking ] space was a Sundance Theatre Lab Finalist and she was one of three finalists for the National Black Theatre’s Soul Producing Residency. She has produced numerous digital musical theater works which can be found exclusively at www.kvmadison.com.
