About/Press

Mighty Kate is known for dazzling audiences with her engaging and endearing performances where she switches back and forth between piano, guitar and violin.  Her accessibility and appeal rest in her great ability to mix classic and contemporary styles.  With a voice that can both comfort and command, she captivates her audience with extraordinarily well-crafted songs.

Mighty Kate’s band includes a string quartet for which she has written beautiful arrangements.  Her band consists of Aaron Comess (drums), Richard Hammond (bass), Morgan Paige (backup vocals), Nisha Asnani (backup vocals), Gene Back (violin), Patrick Doane (violin), Jeannie Oliver (viola), and Alice Hamlet (cello).

Born and raised in Milwaukee, Katy Pfaffl, Mighty Kate grew up as a classical musician. She began studying Suzuki violin at age 6, piano at age 12 and by the age of 13 she was competing as a serious classical pianist throughout the Midwest.  In high school, her creative interests grew, leading her to become a Downbeat Award winning jazz vocalist as well as the top young composer for contemporary orchestral music in Wisconsin.  Shortly after attending college at the University of Cincinnati’s Conservatory of Music, Katy moved to New York, taught herself guitar and began performing in the NY music scene as a multi-instrumentalist/singer/songwriter.

“When Katy Pfaffl became Mighty Kate, it was presumably to skirt the trouble of repeating her consonant-heavy name to everyone she met.  But heroic connotiations of her pseudonym are no accident – there is something genuinely superhuman in her constant swapping between violin, piano and guitar, not  to mention the towers of sound she builds in her songs…”

-Daoud Tyler-Ameen, WNYC

“Mighty Kate is a high energy, unabashedly emotional album sung with great skill and conviction.  The production is flawless, as great rhythm tracks partner up with some of the best string arrangements I’ve heard in years.  Katy Pfaffl has written a gem, a collection with energy, variety and heart.  The album deserves to be listened to in its entirety to appreciate the full range of her talent.”

-Greg Calbi, Sterling Sound

“Local singer/songwriting ivory-and violin-tickling butterfly named Mighty Kate…has that ineffable “it” that defines the true ones, the gifted ones, the aliens.”

-Relix Magazine

“Hopefully we will hear more from this gifted young woman’s talent in the years to come.  We need more visionaries like Katy Pfaffl.”

-Independent Songwriter Magazine