Catherine Roma was born in Philadelphia on January 29, 1948.[1] She attended Germantown Friends School, a Quaker School. Roma earned degrees in music and choral conducting at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and became involved in lesbian and feminist politics while studying there.[2] While in Wisconsin she worked with historian Ann D. Gordon to identify music by and about women throughout history, creating the folk opera American Women: A Choral History for the United States Bicentennial.[3] After returning to Philadelphia in 1975 to teach music at Abington Friends School,[2] she formed the Anna Crusis Women's Choir, which performed American Women: A Choral History at a number of colleges throughout the northeast.[4] Her teachers included Louise Christine Rebe.[5]
By starting Anna Crusis, the first feminist women’s choir in the United States, Roma became one of the founding mothers of the women's choral movement.[6] Her beliefs in feminism, social justice, and Quaker models of leadership fundamentally shaped the mission and direction of Anna Crusis.[2] Decisions were often made through a process similar to Quaker consensus, in which all members had a voice.[7][8]
Roma left Anna in 1983 to pursue a graduate degree in music at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music, receiving her Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in 1989. In 1984, Roma founded MUSE, a.k.a. Cincinnati's Women's Choir.[9][2] Working with Wilmington College at the Warren Correctional Institution, Roma helped to establish the UMOJA Men's chorus.[5] In 2012, she co-founded the diverse, mixed voice World House Choir, in Yellow Springs, Ohio.[10] The name for the World House Choir is taken from a reflection by Martin Luther King Jr. in which he likens the modern world to a house that we must live in together.[11]
In 2008, Roma won the Governor’s Arts Award from the Ohio Arts Council and Ohio Citizens for the Arts Foundation for her involvement in community development and participation.[12]
Roma received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses in 2012.[13] She received the University of Cincinnati Alumni Association Mosaic Award in 2014 for her use of "music as a means of inclusion and understanding".[14]
Roma lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio.[15]
“Cathy Roma Interview”, GALA Choruses