Kate Bollinger, originally from Charlottesville, grew up surrounded by music and art. At an early age she began singing in the car with her dad and on her mother’s children’s music albums and was influenced by her two older brothers, who were constantly playing music in the basement. She began writing songs when she was eight and ever since, songwriting has been her biggest love. When Kate was fourteen, she began releasing original songs on Soundcloud. When she was fifteen, she played her first show, opening for Philadelphia-based band, The Extraordinaires, as well as local band, We Are Star Children, at The Southern Cafe & Music Hall. Since then, she has played many shows at venues such as Magnolia House, Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar, The Ante Room and Fine China in Richmond, Virginia. In 2015 she was awarded the Aslan Mosel award for songwriting, and was runner-up in the Tom Tom Founders Festival Songwriter Competition. In 2017, she released her first official EP, “Key West,” with the help of The Extraordinaires as her backing band. Additionally, she released a music video for her song “Ardent.” In high school, Kate began writing poetry on occasion. In 2015, her poem, “gorillas and curb stomping” was featured in the Macrock booklet. It was during her first year at UVa, however, that poetry writing became her second love. She is currently taking poetry writing with Rita Dove and hopes to double major in Media Studies and the Area Program for Poetry Writing.