Portland-based composer-soprano-lyricist Carolyn Quick (she/her) “is establishing herself as one of the most important voices in our community (Makrokosmos Project 7: Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman - Program Notes).” As a singer and composer, Carolyn loves exploring the unique timbral and textural possibilities of the human voice. She also advocates for historically excluded composers and their music and co-founded new music collective Persisting Sound and music distribution collective Raindrop New Music to uplift those voices.
Carolyn is also a Lyricist and multi-instrumentalist - playing piano and percussion, often accompanying herself for performances of both classical and popular music. In her free time, she has always had a love for poetry and has been writing for well over a decade. As she began to pursue a career in music, poetry served a vital role in the raw expression of her life experiences, free of stress and constraint. She has since set several of her poems to music which has been performed by ensembles such as Fear No Music, Eugene Opera, Persisting Sound, and, most recently, was featured in composer Drew Swatosh's zine of solo unaccompanied works, the Dead Fires Anthology as well as their work "The Rocking Chair" premiered at Cascadia Composer's In Good Hands concert. Carolyn participated in several poetry workshops offered by Trauma Head author Elee Kraljii Gardiner during Art Song Lab. She is currently a member of the East County Poetry Group, with whom she has several of her works published in their recent publication Poetry: Lent 2019 - Epiphany 2020.
Carolyn is currently a member of Portland-based chamber choir In Medio, Resonance Ensemble, Portland Phoenix Chamber Choir, & Tabor Wind Ensemble.