Contralto Karen R. Clark’s performances of medieval to modern music have been heard worldwide. In early music, Karen has performed and recorded with eminent ensembles such as Boston Camerata, Sequentia, Waverly Consort, and Joshua Rifkin’s Bach Ensemble. Karen is founder and director of the professional women’s vocal ensemble Vajra Voices, whose new CD, O Eterne Deus: Music of Hildegard von Bingen, is receiving international acclaim. In new music, Clark has premiered works by leading composers, including Joseph Schwantner, Ben Johnston, Fred Frith and Roy Whelden. Her recording with the Galax Quartet “On Cold Mountain: Songs on Poems of Gary Snyder” prompted music critic Joshua Kosman to write: “It’s mesmerizing in its unplaceable timelessness. Clark’s majestic, throaty singing hints of modernist extravagance and medieval troubadours.” (San Francisco Chronicle) Karen holds degrees from the Indiana University School of Music where she studied with Virginia Zeani and Thomas Binkley. A devoted singing and Feldenkrais teacher, Karen has taught at Princeton University, Sonoma State University, the Thornton School of Music at University of Southern California, and UC Berkeley.
Karen's California debut came in 1990 with her performance in a reconstructed medieval Passion in the first Berkeley Early Music Festival. Her portrayal of the anguished Maria Mater brought accolades from The New York Times, "The most striking performance was with Karen Clark. With minimal vibrato and malleable tone, Ms. Clark showed an astonishing range of expressive subtlety, carrying the listener rapt." Soon after, Karen relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area where she performed with many Bay Area music organizations and, in 2012 founded the women's ensemble, Vajra Voices. Karen has provided vocals for several Garrett Moulton Dance Productions (Speak, Angels; and Luminous Edge), and with Vajra Voices Karen has produced and directed several projects, such as, Eve of the March — with Kitka, Shira Kammen, and Theresa Wong— in Grace Cathedral. Vajra Voices recording, O Eterne Deus: Music of Hildegard von Bingen is called "Lovely, thoughtful, and inspiring, and the most convincing Hildegard disc I’ve yet heard from the USA." (Choir & Organ Magazine).
In new music, Karen Clark has premiered and recorded several works for contralto and the baroque version of the string quartet with The Galax Quartet. The wide breadth of their repertory includes song cycles on poems of the Pulitzer Poet Gary Snyder by composers Fred Frith (For Nothing), Robert Greenlee (Geese Gone Beyond), W.A. Mathieu (For All), Robert Morris (This Bubble of a Heart), Ka Nin Chan (Journeys), and Roy Whelden (Han Shan Songs). The Galax Quartet and Karen Clark have also commissioned and premiered works by David Aaron Jaffee (Eight O's in Wooloomooloo-- on a text of Mark Twain); and, most recently the Pulitzer and Grammy-Award winning composer, Joseph Schwantner's Dream Drapery— Songs on Thoreau.
Karen's California debut came in 1990 with her performance in a reconstructed medieval Passion in the first Berkeley Early Music Festival. Her portrayal of the anguished Maria Mater brought accolades from The New York Times, "The most striking performance was with Karen Clark. With minimal vibrato and malleable tone, Ms. Clark showed an astonishing range of expressive subtlety, carrying the listener rapt." Soon after, Karen relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area where she performed with many Bay Area music organizations and, in 2012 founded the women's ensemble, Vajra Voices. Karen has provided vocals for several Garrett Moulton Dance Productions (Speak, Angels; and Luminous Edge), and with Vajra Voices Karen has produced and directed several projects, such as, Eve of the March — with Kitka, Shira Kammen, and Theresa Wong— in Grace Cathedral. Vajra Voices recording, O Eterne Deus: Music of Hildegard von Bingen is called "Lovely, thoughtful, and inspiring, and the most convincing Hildegard disc I’ve yet heard from the USA." (Choir & Organ Magazine).
In new music, Karen Clark has premiered and recorded several works for contralto and the baroque version of the string quartet with The Galax Quartet. The wide breadth of their repertory includes song cycles on poems of the Pulitzer Poet Gary Snyder by composers Fred Frith (For Nothing), Robert Greenlee (Geese Gone Beyond), W.A. Mathieu (For All), Robert Morris (This Bubble of a Heart), Ka Nin Chan (Journeys), and Roy Whelden (Han Shan Songs). The Galax Quartet and Karen Clark have also commissioned and premiered works by David Aaron Jaffee (Eight O's in Wooloomooloo-- on a text of Mark Twain); and, most recently the Pulitzer and Grammy-Award winning composer, Joseph Schwantner's Dream Drapery— Songs on Thoreau.
Reviews
PRESS & REVIEWS
"Karen R. Clark has a beautiful voice that shows flexibility and nuance. Her performance of “O Quam Magnum Miraculum Est” is gorgeous."
American Record Guide. Peter Loewen
"Contralto Karen Clark played a prominent role in Garrett and Moulton's acclaimed 2014 production The Luminous Edge, and her glorious voice provided a good deal of the initial inspiration for Speak, Angels.”
San Jose Mercury News, Andrew Gilbert
"Sensitively performed by contralto Karen Clark— There's just enough Mahler to break your heart."
San Francisco Chronicle, Allan Ulrich
In truly lustrous voice, contralto Karen Clark, added immeasurable depth to The Luminous Edge.
San Francisco Classical Voice
"Karen Clark best known for her pure-voiced early music performances is sensitive to word,
pitch, tone, and sentiment.”
Los Angeles Times, Mark Swed
“This fascinating and beautiful new release, a collaboration between contralto Karen Clark and the Galax Quartet, boasts an endless dialogue between tradition and innovation, past and present. It’s mesmerizing. Clark’s majestic, throaty singing hints of modernist extravagance and medieval troubadours.”
San Francisco Chronicle, Joshua Kosman
“How wonderful of him to write here for a contralto too, Karen R. Clark; it was her voice that co-inspired the work, along with the writings of Henry David Thoreau. Clark’s voice is a thing of beauty, but also what might be described as a plummy mystery; consistently fascinating
(I can see why Schwantner was so enamored).”
Fanfare, Colin Clarke
“Joseph Schwantner’s Dream Drapery Thoreau Songs is a series of thoughtful meditations, a perfect foil to the kinesthetic work before it. He gives us so much breathing room, room to contemplate and soak in Thoreau’s poetry, sung by Karen R. Clark in her haunting, dark, honey-gold voice.”
American Record Guide, Stephanie Boyd
"Another moment of great intensity was Hildegard’s O quam magnum miraculum est with Clark as solo voice, and a very sensual vielle accompaniment by Shira Kammen."
San Francisco Classical Voice, Niels Swinkle
"Karen Clark (as both Diana & Morpheus) is expressive, and assured, and manages to project a firmly moral demeanor, without sounding merely prim."
Music Web International, Glyn Pursglov
“Contralto, Karen Clark was a commanding presence as Humanity.”
San Francisco Chronicle, Joshua Kosman
"Karen Clark's deep, robust mezzo-contralto voice and dramatic force served delightfully."
Seattle Times, Paul Harris
“Soprano Christine Brandes and mezzo-soprano Karen Clark (Young) are two of the very finest early-music female singers.”
Newark Star-Ledger
"Among the glories of this performance was Karen Clark who gave the "Laudamus te" a plaintive elegance."
The New York Times, Edward Rothstein
"Karen Clark's warm, rich mezzo soprano is one of the loveliest voices on the New York early music scene."
The New York Times, James Oestreich
"The most striking performance was with Karen Clark [Young.]With minimal vibrato and malleable tone,
Ms. Clark showed an astonishing range of expressive subtlety, carrying the listener rapt."
The New York Tomes, James Oestreich
"The evening's most exciting performer was Karen Clark. Ms. Clark's vocal power and riveting stage presence was an aching unforgettable display of pathos and musical subtlety."
The San Francisco Chronicle, Joshua Kosman
“Karen Clark Young, the Mary of the Bloomington Passion, was again outstanding in her fearless affecting account if the Virgin’s planctus.”
The New Yorker, Andrew Porter
“The Three Marys — Karen Clark Young, Laurie Monahan, and Miss Thornton--
seem the most beautiful soprano sound, strong, pure, and passionate, that I have heard in a long time.”
The New Yorker, Andrew Porter
“Karen (Clark) Young, as Mary, gave beautifully judged and admirably sung performances.”
The New Yorker, Andrew Porter
"Karen R. Clark has a beautiful voice that shows flexibility and nuance. Her performance of “O Quam Magnum Miraculum Est” is gorgeous."
American Record Guide. Peter Loewen
"Contralto Karen Clark played a prominent role in Garrett and Moulton's acclaimed 2014 production The Luminous Edge, and her glorious voice provided a good deal of the initial inspiration for Speak, Angels.”
San Jose Mercury News, Andrew Gilbert
"Sensitively performed by contralto Karen Clark— There's just enough Mahler to break your heart."
San Francisco Chronicle, Allan Ulrich
In truly lustrous voice, contralto Karen Clark, added immeasurable depth to The Luminous Edge.
San Francisco Classical Voice
"Karen Clark best known for her pure-voiced early music performances is sensitive to word,
pitch, tone, and sentiment.”
Los Angeles Times, Mark Swed
“This fascinating and beautiful new release, a collaboration between contralto Karen Clark and the Galax Quartet, boasts an endless dialogue between tradition and innovation, past and present. It’s mesmerizing. Clark’s majestic, throaty singing hints of modernist extravagance and medieval troubadours.”
San Francisco Chronicle, Joshua Kosman
“How wonderful of him to write here for a contralto too, Karen R. Clark; it was her voice that co-inspired the work, along with the writings of Henry David Thoreau. Clark’s voice is a thing of beauty, but also what might be described as a plummy mystery; consistently fascinating
(I can see why Schwantner was so enamored).”
Fanfare, Colin Clarke
“Joseph Schwantner’s Dream Drapery Thoreau Songs is a series of thoughtful meditations, a perfect foil to the kinesthetic work before it. He gives us so much breathing room, room to contemplate and soak in Thoreau’s poetry, sung by Karen R. Clark in her haunting, dark, honey-gold voice.”
American Record Guide, Stephanie Boyd
"Another moment of great intensity was Hildegard’s O quam magnum miraculum est with Clark as solo voice, and a very sensual vielle accompaniment by Shira Kammen."
San Francisco Classical Voice, Niels Swinkle
"Karen Clark (as both Diana & Morpheus) is expressive, and assured, and manages to project a firmly moral demeanor, without sounding merely prim."
Music Web International, Glyn Pursglov
“Contralto, Karen Clark was a commanding presence as Humanity.”
San Francisco Chronicle, Joshua Kosman
"Karen Clark's deep, robust mezzo-contralto voice and dramatic force served delightfully."
Seattle Times, Paul Harris
“Soprano Christine Brandes and mezzo-soprano Karen Clark (Young) are two of the very finest early-music female singers.”
Newark Star-Ledger
"Among the glories of this performance was Karen Clark who gave the "Laudamus te" a plaintive elegance."
The New York Times, Edward Rothstein
"Karen Clark's warm, rich mezzo soprano is one of the loveliest voices on the New York early music scene."
The New York Times, James Oestreich
"The most striking performance was with Karen Clark [Young.]With minimal vibrato and malleable tone,
Ms. Clark showed an astonishing range of expressive subtlety, carrying the listener rapt."
The New York Tomes, James Oestreich
"The evening's most exciting performer was Karen Clark. Ms. Clark's vocal power and riveting stage presence was an aching unforgettable display of pathos and musical subtlety."
The San Francisco Chronicle, Joshua Kosman
“Karen Clark Young, the Mary of the Bloomington Passion, was again outstanding in her fearless affecting account if the Virgin’s planctus.”
The New Yorker, Andrew Porter
“The Three Marys — Karen Clark Young, Laurie Monahan, and Miss Thornton--
seem the most beautiful soprano sound, strong, pure, and passionate, that I have heard in a long time.”
The New Yorker, Andrew Porter
“Karen (Clark) Young, as Mary, gave beautifully judged and admirably sung performances.”
The New Yorker, Andrew Porter