User:Karen R. Clark

American mezzo-contralto, Karen R. Clark (b. 1956) has performed in prestigious festival and concert series throughout the world in repertory that spans medieval music, 19th century German song, and new music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Recent performance highlights include the contralto's premieres of song cycles: For Nothing by Fred Frith,Parable by Ben Johnston (Extended Just Intonation), For All by Allaudin Mathieu, This Bubble of a Heart by Robert Morris, and Cold Mountain Songs by Roy Whelden. In October 2012, Karen premiered the song cycle, Dream Drapery: Songs on Thoreau which was composed for her and the Galax Quartet by the Pulitzer and Grammy Award winning composer, Joseph Schwantner. Titled Dream Drapery: Songs on Thoreau'', this song cycle is featured on Ms. Clark's upcoming CD release on the Music Arts label (USA)in the Autumn of 2019.

Karen's rich and varied career began when as a graduate student in Indiana University's opera program she sang the roles of Erda (Das Rheingold), Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), and La Principessa (Suor Angelica) and, concurrently made her New York debut in the role of Maria Mater in Thomas Binkley's reconstruction of the medieval Greater Passion Play (Carmina Burana ms.) Andrew Porter, writing for the New Yorker, praised her "fearless, affecting account." Karen's performances with some of the world's leading early music groups, include, Ensemble Sequentia, Boston Camerata, Newberry Consort, New York Early Music, Pomerium Musices, Project Ars Nova, Waverly Consort, and Joshua Rifkin's Bach Ensemble. Ms. Clark's Town Hall Concerts with the Waverly Consort, prompted the New York Times music critic, James Oestreich to write: "The most striking performance was with Karen Clark... who showed an astonishing range of expressive subtlety;" and in a later review, Oestreich acclaimed: "Karen Clark's warm mezzo-soprano is one of the loveliest voices on the New York early music scene." In oratorio, Karen has performed Bach's Mass in B-minor with the National Chorale in Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall; with Rifkin in New York and Western Australia; and most recently with the Santa Rosa Symphony in California. Her recitals of lieder of Schubert, Schumann, Mahler, and Brahms were recently heard in Los Angeles and San Francisco where Karen performed Brahms, Op. 91, Zwei Gesänge, with Kronos Quartet violist, Hank Dutt.

In 2008 Karen joined forces with the Galax Quartet to commission new works for contralto and baroque strings on poems of the Northern California Pulitzer-poet, Gary Snyder. The San Francisco premiere of four song cycles by Fred Frith, Allaudin Mathieu, Robert Morris, and Roy Whelden took place at Old First Concerts and featured Snyder who introduced the poems and performed in Whelden's setting of "Berry Feast." The recording, On Cold Mountain: Songs on Poems of Gary Snyder, is released on the Innova label. Karen is also recorded on Dorian, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Erato, Focus, Musica Omnia, and New Albion labels.

In 2010, Karen R. Clark founded the women's vocal ensemble Vajra Voices. The San Francisco Bay Area based ensemble performs medieval to modern music. In 2016, their CD O Eterne Deus: Music of Hildegard von Bingen was released on the Music and Arts label and has received wide critical acclaim. In 2014, the ensemble was honored to provide music for the 40th Anniversary Celebration of the Ordination of Women in the Episcopal Church. Vajra Voices has also been featured in productions with the Oakland Ballet and choreographers Janice Garret and Charles Moulton.

Karen R. Clark, contralto's newest CD with the Galax Quartet is slated for release in the Fall of 2019. The Pulitzer and Grammy Awared winning composer, Joseph Schwantner's song cycle, Dream Drapery: Songs on Thoreau is highlighted.

"Whether performing contemporary music, the beautiful songs of Brahms, or the ancient music of Hildegard von Bingen, Karen Clark brings the same empathic ability to express both the meaning of the text and her own personal interpretation of the music with equal passion and vigour. Clark's exquisite technique allows her to produce a variety of colours throughout the range, and to alternate between light and dark in all the registers." James Edward Hughes, Contralto Corner

New Music for Contralto premieres

Fred Frith      For Nothing

David A. Jaffee     Eight O's in Wooloomooloo

Ben Johnston     Parable, for voice, clarinet, and violin

W.A. Mathieu     For All

Robert Morris     This Bubble of a Heart

Roy Whelden     Like a Passing River​​

Chan Ka Nin     Journeys

Joseph Schwantner     Dream Drapery: Songs on Thoreau

Thomas Whitman   Sea Canes

RECORDINGS

New Music

Dream Drapery: Songs on Thoreau     Music and Arts 2019

Parable, for voice, clarinet, and violin   Microfest Records 2015

On Cold Mountain: Songs on Poems of Gary Snyder    New Albion 2011

Early Music

O Eterne Deus: Music of Hildegard von Bingen with Vajra Voices    Music and Arts 2016

Sebastian Duron's Zarzuela: Salir el Amor with El Mundo                    Dorian 2010

What then is Love? with Boston Camerata (Sorrow Come)                  Erato 1999

Farewell, Unkind with Boston Camerata                                                Erato 1996

Cozzolani: Dixit Dominus with Magnificat                                              Musica Omnia 2006

The Island of St. Hylarion with P.A.N.                                                    New Albion 1998

Von Meissen: Frauenlob's Song of Songs with Sequentia                     Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 2000

Vox Iberica II: Codex Las Huelgas with Sequentia                                 Deutsche Harmonia Mundi  1992