Karen P. Thomas, composer and conductor, is the Artistic Director and Conductor of Seattle Pro Musica

Seattle Pro Musica

Seattle Pro Musica is an American choir, based in Seattle, Washington, performing under the direction of conductor and artistic director Karen P. Thomas. Seattle Pro Musica is widely considered to be one of the finest ensembles in the Pacific Northwest, and has received international recognition...

 and Director of Music at University Unitarian Church

University Unitarian Church

University Unitarian Church was designed by Seattle architect Paul Hayden Kirk in 1959. The church is located in the Wedgwood, Seattle neighborhood at the corner of 35th Avenue NE and 68th Street. The building is approximately a mile and half Northeast of the University of Washington Campus and...

. With Seattle Pro Musica she has produced six CD recordings, and has received the Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence and the ASCAP-Chorus America Award for Adventuresome Programming of Contemporary Music. Ms. Thomas has guest conducted at international festivals in Europe and North America, and has served on the boards of the American Choral Director's Association

American Choral Directors Association

The American Choral Directors Association , headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is a non-profit organization with the stated purpose of promoting excellence in the field of choral music...

 for Washington State, the Conductor's Guild, the League-ISCM and the International Alliance for Women in Music. Ms. Thomas is a recipient of grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...

, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and ASCAP, among others. Her compositions have been awarded prizes in various competitions, and her commissions include works for the Grand Jubilee 2000 in Rome, the American Guild of Organists

American Guild of Organists

The American Guild of Organists, or AGO, is a national organization of academic, church, and concert organists in the U.S., headquartered in The Interchurch Center in New York City. It was founded in 1896 as both an educational and service organization...

, and the Goodwill Arts Festival. Her compositions are regularly performed internationally, by groups such as The Hilliard Ensemble

Hilliard Ensemble

The Hilliard Ensemble is a British male vocal quartet originally devoted to the performance of early music. Founded in 1974, the group is named after the Elizabethan miniaturist painter Nicholas Hilliard....

, and have been praised as "superb work of the utmost sensitivity and beauty." Her conducting has received critical praise for its "integrity and high purpose...delivered with taste and impeccable musicianship."

Awards and Fellowships

• Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence
• Seattle Arts Commission Seattle Artists Award
• Distinguished Alumna Award - Cornish College of the Arts
• His Majestie's Clerkes Choral Composition Competition
• ASCAP-Chorus America Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music
• Artist Trust GAP Grant
• Oregon Bach Festival Composition Fellow
• Chorus of Westerly Conducting Fellow
• Delius Composition Contest First Place
• National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors Composition Contest
• Dorland Mountain Arts Colony Composition Fellow
• Washington State Arts Commission Artist Fellowship Award
• Melodious Accord Composition Contest
• King County Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant
• National Endowment for the Arts Challenge III Grant (Goodwill Arts Festival co-recipient)
• New Langton Arts (co-recipient)
• Artist Trust Fellowship
• Northwest Chamber Orchestra Composers Forum Award
• American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Charles E. Ives Scholar
• Brechemin Foundation Scholar
• International League of Women Composers' Third Annual Search for New Music

Selected Conducting Performances

• Bergen International Festival
• Goodwill Arts Festival
• World Festival of Women's Singing
• Festival Vancouver
• International Conference on Women in Music

Compositions Performed By

• Hilliard Ensemble
• International Festival Donne in Musica; Italy
• Bergen International Festival; Norway
• Grand Jubilee for the Year 2000; Rome
• World Festival of Women's Singing
• International Congress on Women in Music; London, England and Bilbao, Spain
• Festival Vancouver; Canada

Instrumental

• When night came... (for the women of Bosnia) clarinet & chamber ensemble or orchestra; or clarinet and piano
• Roundup; saxophone quartet
• Clarion Dances; brass ensemble
• There must be a Lone Ranger! soprano or mezzo, narrator, chamber ensemble
• Rhapsodic Ignition, guitar

Choral

• Lux Lucis
• Over the City (for Hiroshima)
• Three Medieval Lyrics
• Four Lewis Carroll Songs

External links

• Biography at Seattle Pro Musica
• Biography at University Unitarian Church