Education
Festivals & Awards
|
With a “deft touch at crafting melodies and textures” (Charles Rose, Oregon ArtsWatch), Portland-based “local rockstar composer” (New Wave Opera) and soprano Carolyn Quick (she/her) writes “deeply meaningful,” music about our fundamental, shared human experiences, making a “huge impact on both singers and audiences” (Dr. Justin Smith) and "establishing herself as one of the most important voices in our community" (Makrokosmos Project 7). Her music utilizes a "delicate and sensitive use of orchestration" (Sean Bickerton, Canadian Music Centre), “evocative text painting,” and “flowing modal melodies,” that combine to form music with “a refreshing levity to its rhythms” (Rose).
Recent commissions include the Portland Phoenix Chamber Choir, In Medio Chamber Choir, Fear No Music, Eugene Opera, and Queens University of Charlotte’s Royal Voices, who featured two separately commissioned works in their winning competition sets at the XIX International Choral Kathaumixw and the 28th International Choir Competition of Preveza in Greece, the latter receiving a Special Jury Prize for Best Performance of a Contemporary Piece. Throughout her work as a composer and vocalist, Carolyn 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. Known for her “pure timbre” (Opera News), lightness, and agility, Carolyn’s voice excels in both Baroque and contemporary music. She has performed everything from Henry Purcell to Caroline Shaw and has premiered over a dozen new works by living composers including Andrea Reinkemeyer, Damien Geter, and many of her own. As a soloist, Carolyn has performed with Eugene Opera (performing the role of Miles in their production of Benjamin Britten's Turn of the Screw), New Wave Opera, Queer Opera, and the Oregon Bach Festival’s Vocal Fellows Program, and was a guest soloist for orchestral concert works with South Puget Sound Community College Choirs, the Student Orchestras of Greater Olympia, and the University of British Columbia’s Choral Union. Carolyn recently competed in the NATS Student Auditions Under-30 Advanced Treble Category, qualifying for the National Competition Round. She is an avid chorister and has sung with Cappella Romana, Portland Symphonic Choir, and the Portland Phoenix Chamber Choir - who took her music to the Seghizzi International Choral Singing Competition and the XXXIV Festival Internazionale Di Musica Sacra in Italy this Summer. Notable recent projects include collaborations with British Columbia based-poet JCCortens and Seattle-based actor, fight director, and writer Raya Tuffaha for the National Association of Teachers of Singing Composer Mentorship Program, culminating with the Cincinnati Song Initiative’s Let It Be New concert series, and the Seattle Opera Jane Lang Davis Creation Lab which fostered the creation and premiere of “The Meeting House”: a brand new 20 minute opera for treble voices and chamber ensemble. She was also recently commissioned by Dr. Sharon J. Paul and the University of Oregon Chamber Choir, which premiered her work, “Joy” at the Chamber Choir Alumni Event, celebrating 25 years with Dr. Sharon J. Paul. |
|
Carolyn in currently a member of Portland-based chamber choirs In Medio, Cappella Romana, Resonance Ensemble, Rose City Renaissance, Portland Baroque Voices, Northwest Vocal Arts Ensemble, and Portland Phoenix Chamber Choir, as well as co-founder and member of composer-collective Raindrop New Music.
|