Natalie Kaye Gunn

MEET NAT - bio

Natalie Kaye Gunn is a queer and disabled artist who fiercely believes in a protopian future.

Across her twenty year career, Natalie shared creative insights with nonprofit organizations, startup and Fortune 100 companies. At the age of forty, she earned an MBA from San Francisco State with an emphasis in Ethics and Compliance. Nat excels in systems thinking, giving voice to values, and illuminating networks of social capital in support of ambitious goals.

Natalie holds a Master of Music degree in Voice Performance from Portland State University and has served on the faculties of Willamette University and Linfield College. Her first career as a soubrette coloratura soprano included solo and ensemble work with leading companies such as Portland Baroque Orchestra, Carmel Bach Festival, and the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart.

Nat’s first love was jazz, traveling with a swing band in college as the "Smokin' Gunn." Her warm voice was featured on opera and orchestra stages throughout the west coast region. Some of Nat’s favorite gigs include touring Oregon state with Portland Opera--singing for thousands of kids as the evil Queen of the Night in Mozart's Magic Flute, debuting the lead role in Michael Valenti's operetta The Story of an Hour (her first on-stage death!), and singing love songs to an ass as Queen Tytania in Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream. She has received honors and accolades from the National Opera Association, Metropolitan Opera National Council, NATS Artist Award, and the Gerda Lissner Foundation in New York City.

Nowadays, Natalie is mostly called Nat and can sometimes be found reading her poetry at an open mic or belting Robyn and Whitney at karaoke in Oakland.

POETRY & MUSINGS

Natalie Kaye Gunn is a queer and disabled artist recently published in the first issue of Ink & Marrow. She was raised in a giant family in the Pacific Northwest and nature and art have been her constant companions. Nat’s writing draws on her experience as a musician and theater artist and she loves to perform for live audiences. She lives in northern California with her partner and chihuahua.

“In The Kitchen” Ink & Marrow, Issue No. 1 (2023)

“The Power of Presence in Performance” Oregon Musician (2012)

“I walk with a cane. Here are the three things I get asked the most (and better questions to ask).” LinkedIn Article (2019)