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, and advocates for historically excluded composers with her collective Persisting Sound.
With performances across North America and Croatia, Carolyn’s commissions include Fear No Music, composing for their HEARINGS concert in response to the 2018 Kavanaugh Hearings, Eugene Opera’s Songs for Quarantine, Vancouver Opera’s New Works project, and Voices of Concinnity’s Choral Composer Amplify Project. She has had works programmed for Vancouver Pro Musica’s Sonic Boom Festival, Art Song Lab, and has participated as both composer and performer for Uzmah-Upbeat’s International Summer School in Croatia, and the Oregon Bach Festival Composer’s Symposium in Eugene, Oregon.
Most recently, Carolyn was commissioned to compose a new work for the Portland Phoenix Chamber Choir - which premiered alongside the Pacific Northwest premiere of Margaret Bond’s Credo. The work was also performed by Lewis and Clark College's Cappella Nova in December and will be performed during the International Choral Kathaumixw in British Columbia this Summer!
SINGER-FOCUSED BIO (200 WORDS)
Carolyn Quick (she/her) is a composer, vocalist, and poet based in Portland, Oregon. Described as a “versatile young soprano” with a “pure timbre” and “haunting” voice (Opera News; Eugene Opera), Carolyn has performed in ensembles such as Eugene Opera , tackling the "hard-to-cast role of Miles" (Opera News), Portland Symphonic Choir, and the Oregon Bach Festival Vocal Fellows Program. Carolyn has also sung with Queer Opera, and Resonance ensemble - singing in the premiere of composer Damien Geter’s An African American Requiem. She toured with the award-winning University of Oregon Chamber Choir for choral competitions in Ireland, and Germany, and the Portland Phoenix Chamber Choir, travelling to the UK to compete in the Llangollen International Musical Eistedfodd.
As a soloist, she has performed Vivaldi’s Gloria with the South Puget Sound Community College Choirs, and with the Student Orchestras of Greater Olympia’s for their presentation of Handel’s Messiah. Carolyn has premiered over a dozen contemporary works across North America and Europe (with pieces by composers such as Andrea Reinkemeyer and Cary Boyce). Most recently, Carolyn performed in the Pacific Northwest premiere of Margaret Bond’s Credo alongside her commissioned work Catch at Hope with the Portland Phoenix Chamber Choir.
WRITER-FOCUSED BIO (150 WORDS)
Poet, composer, soprano, and multi-instrumentalist Carolyn Quick (she/her) 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 set several of her poems to music in works such as: Pieces, Not I Alone, Stop the Clock (which blends her words with quotations from the 2018 Kavanaugh Hearings Transcripts), and To Breathe which sets two of her poems and was recently selected for the Eugene Opera's call for scores: Songs for Quarantine. At Art Song Lab, Carolyn participated in several poetry workshops offered by Trauma Head author Elee Kraljii Gardiner. She is published in the East County Poetry Group's recent publication East County Poetry: Lent 2019 - Epiphany 2020. For more information, visit her website: www.carolynquick.com.