SATURDAY SPOTLIGHT! KELLI BUTLER

Finding Your Authentic VoiceStudio Spotlight on SEY SingersArtist Pysche & Performance Mindset

Mar 19

SATURDAY SPOTLIGHT WILL HIGHLIGHT A SINGER-ARTIST IN THE STUDIO. SOME OF THESE SINGER-ARTISTS MIGHT BE FAMILIAR TO YOU, AND SOME MAY NOT. NO MATTER WHAT, EACH SINGER-ARTIST IS SOMEONE THAT YOU SHOULD GET TO KNOW!

It is an honor and a privilege for me to work with each of these singer-artists and introduce them to you!

This week’s spotlight shines on operatic soprano, Kelli Butler.

Kelli is equal parts opera and gaming geek. Thus her branding: The Opera Geek. I am astounded at her ability to move into each of these landscapes and navigate with ease, a biting humor, and with Kelli-esque compassion and fire!

She is passionate, and fierce, and her loyalty to her family and friends and those she cares about runs deep. She has a world class instrument that needs to be heard and felt and seen. She brings all of that focus and fire and great humor into the studio, onto the stage, into the gaming world, and into every cause she stands for.

Kelli has claimed her authenticity as tall as she stands, without apology. Just has her beauty is timeless, so is her spirit and her voice. She is another unicorn in the studio, that wields a sword!! Get to know her, listen to her, and follow her. She is deep and thought-filled, and lives as she sings, and sings as she lives: full of truth, intensity, spirit and artistic focus.

And, she should be singing Queen of the Night all over the world, and that’s her voice teacher speaking her truth! So, if you really want a Queen that possesses true fire, in voice and spirit, here she is!

There is a moment at the end of Terry Pratchett's wonderful book Witches Abroad in which Granny Weatherwax, a powerful witch, is faced with a million reflections of herself, in an endless hall of mirrors. She asks Death, “Where am I?” He responds that she is inside the mirror. “When can I get out?” When you find the one that is real. After a moment, she points to herself and says, “This one.”

Finding our voices can be a lot like that….so many people telling us who we should be, so many choices reflected around us, but really, there is only one answer: we are ourselves. Our voices are our own. And while we all tend to struggle with that at times, I can say for certain that my feelings about it became much stronger when I met Susan!!

I should backtrack a bit and introduce myself. Oh hi. I’m Kelli. I am, of course, an opera singer. I’m also known in the online gaming and tabletop gaming communities as “The Opera Geek”. You may have guessed from my opener that I love fantasy; it was always my escape. Once I found out that onstage, I could be whoever I wanted, well…that was it for me. Not much different than rolling up a character in D&D! In fact, one of the first ways I got seen in that community was talking about how similar the character creation process is for them both.

On the “I am a srs performer” side of things: I’m a coloratura soprano, and I’m known a bit for my Queen of the Night (where being six feet tall with resting bitch face certainly helps). I’ve also sung in full performance Violetta, Hannah Glawari, Musetta, Adele, and created the role of the District Attorney in the world premiere workshop performance of Anthony Davis’ opera FIVE. I’ve studied with Susan since 2016, and loved every minute of it!

As I mentioned, I’m also a gaming personality and content creator, under the Opera Geek brand. I’ve co-written an opera subclass for D&D that went to bestseller status in 48 hours, used gaming to raise money for charity, and gotten to play with SO MANY COOL PEOPLE.

I’m also on the advisory board of and is an ambassador for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society's "Stream to End MS" fundraising program, which aims to help fund research into cures for MS (my husband was diagnosed in 2017). I live in New York with my husband Justin and our two VERY irrational pets, two very irrational pets, Scotty and Bones.

You can find me all over socials here:
Twitter: @TheOperaGeek
Insta: @TheOperaGeek
YouTube: TheOperaGeek
FB: https://www.facebook.com/OperaGeek
Website: kellibutler.com