If you want to understand the complexity of Stephanie Zuluaga Kneeman’s artistry, you need to gain an image of the whole person. She is a mezzo-soprano of rich musical gifts and wide-ranging interests: music and theater, but also family, community, and even the business world. She is operatically trained but sings everything from salsa to Sondheim, Bach to boleros, Country to Carmen. 

Born in California to immigrants from central Colombia, Stephanie spent much of her early life in Kansas City before seeking formative and professional experiences in Boston, Seattle, and Chicago. Returning home to Kansas City in 2021, she found a thriving Latino community “and a really lively music scene,” she said recently. “It was evident that the community and the work are there for me.” 

Stephanie was always a bit of a maverick. At age six she was climbing trees in her family’s back yard and singing her heart out to anyone who would listen. “Clearly I could carry a tune,” she said with a laugh. “The neighbors would comment, Oh gosh it’s such a pretty voice.” 

When the family moved to Kansas City, Stephanie began to discover her voice: as a student at Harmony Middle School and through private lessons starting at age 13. While at Blue Valley Northwest, she began singing in school choirs, musicals, revues, and competitions. Meanwhile, her voice continued to expand in size, range, and beauty of tone. 

Still, she had a “big classical voice” she said, “that didn’t fit into any of the ‘boxes’ that I could see.” Finally a perspicacious choir teacher told her: “You know, this could be a career for you if you really wanted it.” It was the late Dale Gene Eaton, Blue Valley Northwest’s beloved choral director at the time, who urged her to continue her vocal studies. After some soul-searching, she enrolled at The UMKC Conservatory. 

Understanding one’s own voice can be a complicated science. While some can discern immediately their Fach or voice type, in some cases it remains unclear until well into a singer’s twenties. Fortunately, the Conservatory directed Stephanie toward Professor Un Chong Christopher, a gifted mezzo-soprano who helped steer her student’s explorations. 

“She said, you’re not a dramatic soprano, you just have an ‘interesting’ tone. She started bringing in some lower pieces, and they felt like a good fit.” Completing her undergraduate program, she continued to explore this new “mezzo” landscape.

Growing up, Stephanie had observed the range of musical styles that were thriving in Kansas City, through groups such as Ensemble Ibérica. But for now, she was off to a graduate program at Boston University, where she began singing mezzo-soprano repertoire including roles in works such as Florencia en el Amazonas, L’Enfant et les sortilèges, La Tragédie de Carmen, and Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters. 

Also during this period, Stephanie met the love of her life, Jacob Kneeman, who was studying medicine at Boston University and has since become one of the Midwest’s leading specialists in pain management.

The couple settled initially in Seattle, where Jacob did a residency and Stephanie gained a new type of confidence: It turns out she was a natural at selling high-end automobiles to Seattle’s upwardly mobile techies. 

“It gave me a lot of confidence to know that … yes, I was good at singing, but I was also good at other things,” Stephanie said. “And if needed to survive in the corporate world, I could. … Up to then, I had done nothing besides music my whole life, so there was a deep insecurity. … And now I realized that, Wow, I can be good at this, too.” 

In Chicago, where Jacob completed a fellowship at Northwestern University, Stephanie entered yet another phase — that of motherhood. Today, with two young daughters and a new house, she and Jacob are back in the Kansas City area, where she continues to perform but at a pace that allows for a delicate balance of priorities.

Stephanie has come to view life as a series of seasons. “I had my season of classical music in Boston, and my season in Seattle where I learned to fit into the corporate world,” she said. “This is my motherhood season, while my children are little.” 

A new season might be just around the corner, and it’s bound to be more diverse than ever. Stephanie has already begun exploring new opportunities: through appearances with Ensemble Ibérica, stage work at Musical Theater Heritage (Man of La Mancha), and commercials (through her representation at Moxie Talent) for Capital Federal and Land o’ Frost. 

Her current life-season is “the happiest so far … the one in which I feel most comfortable with who I am,” she said. “Because I can embrace the Latin side and the American side, knowing that I’m always going to fall somewhere in between. And I’m okay with that.” 

Growing up, she added: “I didn’t really fit in: I looked a little different and I sounded a little different from everyone else.” Gradually she has come to see that “you don’t have to give that up, that’s what makes you special … that makes you feel seen and understood.” 

—By Paul Horsley

Find Stephanie on Instagram at @stephla1214. To reach Paul Horsley, performing arts editor, send an email to paul@kcindependent.com or find him on Facebook (paul.horsley.501) or Twitter/Instagram (@phorsleycritic).