Project T
an autoethnographical and living document
of the art and life
of transgender
opera singer
Teiya Kasahara
笠原貞野
Watch on Confluence Concerts’ YouTube channel from Oct 16-30, 2025!
This project is a glimpse into my journey of what it’s like to be me. Simply put, I’m a transgender singer who is about to start gender affirming hormone therapy (exogenous testosterone) for the first time in my life, a therapy that will change my high soprano voice forever. When, you ask? Soon. Very soon (but not soon enough). Why, you ask? Well, that’s a great question, and one I hope to answer through my iterative recital, recording projects, musings, writings, reflections, and videos on TikTok.
“T is for Teiya, for transgender, for transition, for testosterone, it’s for living my truth.”
Most of my life I’ve been socialized, conditioned and trained to believe that precision and excellence are the only goals worth going after. As a perceived girl/woman and high-voiced soprano, I have been driven towards this unattainable horizon of musical and vocal perfection. Now that I’m 40, I’ve decided to publicly share my vocal transition through self-documentation and public performance through Project T. ‘T’ is for Teiya, for transgender, for transition, for testosterone, for living my truth. I don’t want to isolate myself or contribute to the false notion that people who transition must shut themselves away while undergoing a long and arduous metamorphosis. Will this caterpillar become a moth, or a butterfly, or something else? I say: does it even matter what the end result is?
Transition – in all its forms, along all its winding, rocky, and flat paths, with all of its hiccups, hurdles and mountains – must be celebrated, endured, and normalized. I want to share the good, the bad, and all the ugly, glorious, and mundane happenings in between. I want to be in community with you. And so I hope that by sharing a bit of myself along this transition, I can bring us all closer.
Thank you for being here, for witnessing a part of this journey, and for being a part of Project T. If you’re curious to read more of my polished artistic offerings that are infused with this ethos, I’ll be sharing those on VOCAL Media, a pay-per-use and subscription service for authors of all kinds.
And if you’d just like a taste, follow me on TikTok, Instagram or YouTube. If you’d like to join my journey, please consider becoming a supporter to watch, read and listen to exclusive content via Patreon. There I’ll be sharing full vocal videos, musings, reflections, demonstrations, and video diary entries.
“Home Video”
May 2 & 3, 2025
confluence concerts
Project T: Home Video was presented by Confluence Concerts on May 2 & 3, 2025 at Heliconian Hall in Toronto. Accompanied by David Eliakis, piano.
“A Mixtape”
June 11, 2024
ChamberQueer
The launch of Project T was presented in ChamberQUEER’s Constellation Festival on June 11, 2024 at Mitu580 in Brooklyn, New York. Accompanied by David Eliakis, piano.
Gallery photos credit: Sean Solomon.
