From opera singer to school nurse, Kimball provides harmony in her communities

By Lauren Baker

It is rare to find a director of clinical services who can take a patient's vitals and perform a solo from Hayden’s “Missa Brevis" mass, but that’s exactly what Colleen Kimball can do.

Over the past 25 years, Kimball has performed in renowned concert venues, worked in a trauma unit and directed clinical services at Presbyterian School. She joined the St. John’s community this year.

As a child, Kimball was known for her interest in service and music. She wanted to move to India so she could work with Mother Teresa, but she also loved singing along to Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland records. Little did she know that she would excel in both fields.

While she was a student at St. Agnes Academy, she was selected for an audition-only vocal group and began performing in musicals. As a senior, she starred as Mabel in Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance,” which helped develop her classical and operatic technique.

That same year, her choir director encouraged Kimball to pursue music studies but pushed back against the idea of her double majoring in music and anything else.

“You’re gonna have to do this 100 percent,” he said. “Don’t bother with splitting your brain and thinking you need a backup — you have to focus only on music and go all the way because you can always change later, so you have to go for it now.”

Kimball graduated from the University of North Texas because of its acclaimed vocal program and then earned her masters at Boston University Opera Institute. With the contacts she cultivated in Boston, she moved to New York, found an agent and quickly started booking gigs.

Despite getting paid to perform, the work was not steady enough to make ends meet, so Kimball also worked at the Young Adults Institute, an agency that helps disabled people find jobs. The Young Adults Institute allowed her to serve others, while singing provided an opportunity for her to entertain an audience — which, she later realized, was another form of service.

“When I switched [to nursing], I strongly wanted to do something that was connected with serving people,” Kimball said. “At the time, I couldn't see how music was doing that. Years later, I realized I actually was serving people.”

While in New York, she completed a oneyear performance certificate at Juilliard Opera Center.

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The most difficult part of her vocal training was competing against other sopranos for roles. Kimball preferred a collaborative environment to the cutthroat competition. Ensemble casts allowed her to create friendships in the otherwise ruthless world of opera. She cited Mimi from “La Bohème” and the Queen in “Night of the Magic Flute” as two of her favorite roles.

Touring productions typically allot one week for rehearsals followed by two weeks of performances in each new city. Kimball lived this nomadic lifestyle while caring for her young daughter. Even though childcare was included in the touring contract, she tried to alternate touring and performing in New York.

Kimball’s office at Young Adults Institute was six blocks away from the World Trade Center. She witnessed the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 and helped 300 people find their way home before spending five hours walking back to her apartment.

A cloud of toxic smoke lingered in the air for weeks, and high security blockades remained in place for a year. The culture of fear in post-9/11 New York City, combined with stress and fatigue from constant travel, led her to reflect on how her job affected her family.

In 2003, after a year of reflection, she decided to effectively end her singing career by canceling all her upcoming performances — some of which had been booked two years in advance — and moving her family back to Houston.

“The stress of it was really starting to take a toll on me — traveling and living that life out of a suitcase and not knowing where your next check was going to come from and fighting to keep the career alive,” she said. “I hit that place where I just knew that I didn't want to continue anymore.”

After her move, she volunteered at MD Anderson while figuring out her next step. The nurses she worked with encouraged her to attend nursing school because her personality fit the job.

After finishing nursing school, she worked in the Ben Taub Level 1 trauma center before switching gears to become the head nurse at Presbyterian School. She was happy to work in education because it was a more comfortable, familiar environment. Kimball’s father was a professor at St. Thomas University and taught for 54 years, so Kimball knew what it was like being around students all the time.

Five years after the end of her singing career, she finally came to terms with her decision. Although she did not regret quitting, she still spent time processing the grief. Unlike other professions, she says, an artist’s passion keeps them emotionally connected to their profession.

“Artists are not created; they're born. If you deny the passion, it's going to come out sideways somehow,” Kimball said. “You have to have the courage to just not quit until you're really ready.”

After seven years of working as a registered nurse at Presbyterian, Kimball decided to become a nurse practitioner.

In December, choir director Scott Bonasso asked Kimball to perform in the Choral Orchestral Festival, her first public performance since 2003. At first, she rejected the idea, but later agreed after hearing students perform in Chapel.

“We ask the students to be brave. Well, we old people can, too,” she said. “I took myself back to that mindset of giving someone else a gift. I just tried to stay in that frame of mind and realize it was a blessing that he asked.”

Bonasso enjoyed the collaboration with Kimball because of her professional attitude and commitment to performance. While many soloists meet Bonasso for the first time during dress rehearsal, Kimball rehearsed with an accompanist and communicated with Bonasso to prepare for her performance.

Although her day-to-day life no longer involves performing complex arias, Kimball still carries aspects of her first profession. She notes that her work as an artist helped her develop her presentation skills, confidence, and ability to create relationships.

Megan Henry, the Director of K-12 services, says that Kimball's artistic expression is reflected in her empathy while taking care of patients.

“An artist learns to be tremendously in touch with the human spirit. You have to develop great empathy to know what the music is trying to portray,” said Henry, who has worked in the Fine Arts Department and performed in the Houston Symphony Chorus. “She has developed this incredible empathy for the human condition and the human spirit. She carries that into the work she does as a nurse and as our director of clinical services.”

Looking back, Kimball’s motivation to keep working boils down to passion. Her interest in learning motivated her to earn five degrees and succeed in two fields. She also attributes her motivation to the emphasis and dedication her parents placed on education.

“I love that you've got teenagers who are on the precipice of their whole world — there's so many possibilities,” she said. “It's like watching a flower blooming, and every year the flower gets brighter and more beautiful until we let you guys fly.”

Just a few weeks ago, Kimball participated in a faculty version of “The Masked Singer." Even though she wore a ridiculously large eyeball mask for her performance of “Part of Your World” from “The Little Mermaid,” her distinctive voice shone through.

Kimball has no regrets. She is content with her career and maintains that she made the right decision to get into music — and when to stop. She encourages students to wholeheartedly commit to their passions.

“Do it 100 percent and without apologies. You can’t just be in it halfway,” she said. “Later in your life, you can always do something else. If the day comes when you know in your heart that you've done as much as you're comfortable doing, then you can stop. But if you even have the inkling that that's what you want, you gotta go for it.”