June Kamerling

My Story

June is a people connector and because of this, is a valuable marketer and networker. She met our founder, Linda Knighten, at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival decades ago and kept in touch through social media. Linda noticed June’s livestream activities during pandemic and reconnected, finding her way to the Miss Smith Studio. When June heard about Linda’s dream of starting a music festival in Newport somewhat fashioned after the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, she was thrilled and even more honored to be asked to serve on the board of NPAF. 

June Kamerling was born and raised in the NYC area. As a child, she got to go see musicals on Broadway and came to love Broadway show tunes. She had music lessons growing up and then sang in choirs through college, played various instruments (including guitar, flute and recorder….eventually ukulele) and kept up with music all through her young years and into adulthood. June eventually “landed” in the San Francisco Bay Area where she met her husband, Dana Meyer, and soon after, discovered a chorus called The Berkeley Broadway Singers. June was in BBS for 15 years and was on the board of directors for four years.

She left BBS to pursue more solo performing and has combined her solo singing with small ensembles and duets with friends, as well as accompanying herself on piano.
She has performed in three solo shows at Society Cabaret in San Francisco, several house concerts at her home in the Bay Area, including two live stream shows which were fundraisers, one for Miss Smith’s Salem studio and one for The Milo Foundation, a dog and cat rescue organization. Missing choral singing, June wanted to join a chorus again. She asked Stephanie Smith for suggestions which led her to the Oakland Gay Men’s Chorus, a gender inclusive TTBB chorus. She successfully auditioned and is now a regular member of OGMC. She serves on two committees: PR/Marketing and Artistic Production in charge of costumes.

June continues to do performance coaching with Miss Smith and continues  piano lessons, studying with Ron Drotos, an accomplished musician in NYC she met at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival in about 2000. She is also a student of Bobby Weinapple, acting coach in San Francisco. June is a composer in her own right and will be featured in “Diverse Voices: Volume 2” in Pinole, California, on February 3, 2024. She is a Pilates instructor and massage therapist and has her own studio, June Kamerling Pilates, based in Richmond, California.

Music has been essential in her life and for her mental health through the pandemic. The people she has met through Miss Smith have become her main source of community and friend network. She is very excited to be a part of NPAF from the ground up and experience its success and growth.