Heather Kropf

Heather Kropf's lyrical, piano-based albums have turned the heads of fellow musicians and critics for their songcraft and attention to detail.

A fixture on the Pittsburgh music scene, Kropf was born in Portland, Oregon, the daughter of Mennonites, an ethnic-religious tradition known for its A Cappella singing and 4-part harmonies. Sheltered from the influences of mainstream popular culture with only jazz, folk and classical allowed on the home stereo, Kropf began to study classical piano at the age of 7 and continued until she was 19.

As a toddler, the Kropf family served a 2-year term as missionaries in Kingston, Jamaica. At 12 years, her family moved from the West Coast to a small Midwestern town in Indiana where her mother studied to be a minister and she remained until earning a collegiate degree in Fine Art.

Unable to avoid her fascination for pop culture, at 14 years Kropf began exploring music by genre-blending singer-songwriters such as Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, Sting, and Paul Simon. She began writing her own material, joined a cover band in college and worked as a DJ at her college station.

After college, Kropf followed her passion for music and radio by landing an internship as Assistant Music Director at WYEP 91.3 FM Pittsburgh. She eventually became the producer/DJ for the Sunday Afternoon Mix. Inspired by a wide variety of AAA artists that passed through the station, Kropf began to try out her own material in local open stages and clubs until finally making her debut album Sky in 2000, co-produced with bassist Randall Venturini (Dave Harger Group, Crisis Car) and engineered by Peter Beckerman (The Skatellites) at Mr. Small's Funhouse.

Noted as an artist of unusual depth and insight by Pittsburgh press, and as one of the very few women singer-songwriters on the Pittsburgh scene at the time, Kropf found herself with many opportunities to open for national touring acts including Cheryl Wheeler, The Weepies, Chris Smither, Bettye LaVette, Mason Jennings, Peter Himmelman, and more, and to play in vital Pittsburgh clubs such as The Graffiti, The Rosebud and Club Cafe.

In 2005 Kropf recorded her follow-up, What Else is Love, engineered by Dino DiStefano at Heid Studio and mixed and mastered under the guidance of Grammy-winning engineer, Scott Hull (Steely Dan). It was listed as one of the top Pittsburgh albums of the year by WYEP.

On the heels of her third release in 2009, an intimate acoustic project called Hestia, Kropf fell seriously ill. For the next three years her condition forced her to remove herself from traveling and performing. At times, too fatigued to even sing, Kropf turned to songwriting as her main creative outlet and hoped for a day when she could make music again, but this time on different terms.

In 2012, Kropf emerged with a collection of new songs that eventually became part of her Kickstarter-funded fourth album, Chrysalis. Reflecting her shifting priorities in life over all, the album feels much like a debut release. Drawing comparisons to Tracey Thorn (Everything But the Girl) and Suzanne Vega, the album pushes into new sonic territory in partnership with co- producer, Jeff Berman, a versatile jazz/folk player and composer known for his work with the eclectic trio AppalAsia, and engineered under the guidance of Grammy-winning engineer, Jay Dudt.

Soon after in 2017, Kropf released Lights, and Kickstarter-funded project recorded at Sound Emporium in Nashville and produced and mixed by Lex Price (Mindy Smith) with Joshua Grange and Tim Young on guitars, Lex on bass, Steve Moore on keys and Ian Fitchuk on Hammond B3 and drums.

Anchored by her warm and inviting vocal tone, Kropf continues to create her signature sound of lush, mid-tempo folk/pop, but there is new insight and emotional honesty to its expression as the sound is refined down to its essentials. One finds a sense of transformation and new possibility pouring out of these tracks, heard in both the songs and the spacious sound of the recording itself. Kropf sings of change, healing, and redemption with a voice tempered by experience and inspired by hope. It marks a breakthrough for her both personally and professionally.

Heather began performing live on a more regular basis again, sharing the bill with Jill Barber, Kim Richey and Eileen Ivers.

In recent years she has toured nationally with her two-woman show "We Know There Are Oceans" created with writer and performer Michelle Milne, before falling ill again in early 2020. She is currently on sabbatical from music.