ABOUT US: OUR CONDUCTOR

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Karen P. Thomas, composer and conductor, is the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Seattle Pro Musica. With Seattle Pro Musica she has received the Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence and the ASCAP-Chorus America Award for Adventuresome Programming of Contemporary Music. She has appeared as guest conductor at the Bergen International Festival, International Conference on Women in Music and the Alliance World Festival of Women’s Singing, and has conducted her choirs at the American Guild of Organists National Convention, the American Choral Directors Association NW Division Convention and Festival Vancouver in Canada. Ms. Thomas has presented lectures for the American Guild of Organists National Convention, the Chorus America National Convention, the American Choral Directors Association and the World Festival of Women’s Singing.

A review of Ms. Thomas’ CD with Seattle Pro Musica, Alnight by the Rose, in Choir & Organ Magazine (Great Britain) remarks: “… there is great depth and purity in this performance...Seattle Pro Musica presents a cappella singing at its best.” American Record Guide describes her CD Peace in Our Time as “probing and radiant…vibrant and gutsy…a most satisfying and deeply affecting release” which has “warmth and emotional punch.” Her conducting has received critical praise for its “integrity and high purpose...delivered with taste and impeccable musicianship…”

Ms. Thomas' compositions are regularly performed and broadcast on radio and television throughout the United States, Europe and Latin America, including the International Festival Donne in Musica in Italy, the Bergen International Festival in Norway, the International Congresses on Women in Music in London and Spain, the Oregon Bach Festival, the Alliance World Festival of Women’s Singing and the Goodwill Arts Festival in the U.S. Her choral works are performed regularly by groups such as The Hilliard Ensemble, and have been praised as “…superb work of the utmost sensitivity and beauty.” Of her music theater work, Boxiana, the Seattle Times wrote: "...one of the most dazzling interdisciplinary pieces to have hit Seattle in the past few years. Passionate, witty and daunting in its technical prowess...This is one knockout of a piece." Her recent work for clarinet and orchestra, When night came... (dedicated to the women of Bosnia-Herzegovina), has received performances in London, New York City and throughout the U.S. Her catalogue of compositions includes choral, orchestral, vocal, chamber, solo instrument, and theater works.

Ms. Thomas is a recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, The American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New Langton Arts, the Seattle Arts Commission and the King County Arts Commission. She has received fellowships from Artist Trust and the Washington State Arts Commission, and was a fellow at the Oregon Bach Festival, Dorland Arts Colony and Chorus of Westerly. Her compositions have been awarded prizes in various competitions, including the ASCAP Competition, His Majestie's Clerkes, Melodious Accord, the International Alliance for Women in Music and the Northwest Chamber Orchestra. Her commissions include works for the Grand Jubilee 2000 in Rome, the American Guild of Organists, and the Goodwill Arts Festival, among numerous others. In 1998 she received the first Distinguished Alumna Award from Cornish College of the Arts.

Currently serving on the board of the American Choral Director’s Association (Washington State) and the Conductor’s Guild, Ms. Thomas has been a Board member of the International Alliance for Women in Music and of the League-ISCM, and has served on the faculties of Pacific Lutheran University, Evergreen State College, Cornish College and Edmonds Community College. The Music Director of a comprehensive music program at University Unitarian Church, she holds advanced degrees from the University of Washington and Cornish College. She has studied and participated in Master Classes with Sir David Willcocks, Arvo Pärt, Peter Phillips, Dale Warland, Jacob Druckman, Leon Kirchner, William Kraft, Ned Rorem, Helmuth Rilling, William Bergsma, Tonu Kaljuste, Simon Carrington and Gregg Smith.

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