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Composer Page for Karen Siegel

karen-siegel

Composer Karen Siegel creates innovative, engaging, and meaningful choral and vocal works. Hailed as “complex and wonderful” (TheatreScene.net) and “colorful and at times groovy” (WQXR.org), her works are frequently performed by the New York City-based ensemble C4: the Choral Composer/Conductor Collective, which she co-founded in 2005.

Siegel’s works are featured on albums by The Crossing, Harmonium Choral Society, the Choir of Trinity College Melbourne, Tonality, and C4; are published by See-A-Dot Music Publishing and Chestnutoak Press; are distributed by Universal Edition and the Justice Choir Songbook; and are reprinted in The Singing Book, Fourth Edition (Rowan & Littlefield, 2024).

Her opera The Hat: Arendt Meets Heidegger, with librettist Zsuzsanna Ardó, premiered at the Pride Arts Center in Chicago with Thompson Street Opera in 2019; her feminist collaborative work “Visions of Flight,” for the Danish National Girls’ Choir and cellist Henrik Dam Thomsen, premiered at DR Koncerthuset in 2022; and her choral sound installation “Lessons of Stone” premiered at the Noguchi Gallery in NYC with the Astoria Choir in 2024.

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Love Lines – Voicing: SSATBB  Instrumentation: Unaccompanied  Performance Length: 4:00  Notation: Standard  Text Source: Karen Siegel  Language: English  Descriptive Terms: Friendship, Love, Connection, Jazzy, Joyful, Upbeat, Rhythmic  First Performance: November 17, 2022 : C4: the Choral Composer/Conductor Collective, Perry Townsend, NY, NY    Text SettingComposer’s NotesSource for Scores(P:E 222/2055~2025-Q3)
Despertar – Voicing: SATB  Instrumentation: Unaccompanied  Performance Length: 6:00  Notation: Trills over notes sung on two vowels, an “overtone trill”  Text Source: Carlos Pintado  Language: Spanish  Descriptive Terms: Understanding, Change, Nature, Mindfulness, Sky, Stars, Beauty  First Performance: March 13, 2022 : West Village Chorale, Colin Britt, New York, NY    Text SettingComposer’s NotesSource for Scores(P:E 222/1942~2024-Q4)
Meditation – Voicing: SSAA  Solo(s): Mezzo-soprano  Instrumentation: Unaccompanied  Performance Length: 5:00  Notation: Arrows showing aleatoric repetition of phrases  Text Source: Karen Siegel  Language: English  Descriptive Terms: Peace, Mindfulness, Forgiveness, Gratitude, Covid, Pandemic  First Performance: November 19, 2020 : Caldwell University Chorale, Laura Greenwald, Caldwell, NJ    Text SettingComposer’s NotesSource for Scores(P:E 222/1577~2021-Q3)
To Be Free – Voicing: SATB  Instrumentation: Piano  Performance Length: 4:00  Notation: Standard  Text Source: Joseph Brackett, Karen Siegel  Language: English  Seasonal/Liturgical Use: Thanksgiving  Descriptive Terms: Community, Gratitude, Immigration, Love, Rhythmic  First Performance: Nov 09, 2018: Yale Glee Club, Jeffrey Douma, Hendrie Hall, Yale University, New Haven, CT    Text SettingComposer’s NotesSource for Scores(P:E 222/1033~2019-Q4)
How She Could Not Drive – Voicing: SATB  Instrumentation: Audio File  Performance Length: 8:00  Notation: Standard  Text Source: Lydia Davis  Language: English  Descriptive Terms: Anxiety, Driving, Electronics  First Performance: Jun 04, 2015: C4: the Choral Composer/Conductor Collective, Tim Brown, Church of St Luke in the Field    Text SettingComposer’s NotesSource for Scores(P:E 222/581~2017-Q1)
Clouds Ephemeral – Voicing: SSATBB  Instrumentation: Unaccompanied  Performance Length: 5:30  Notation: Standard  Text Source: Karen Siegel  Language: English  Descriptive Terms: Calm, Nature, Peaceful, Science, Sky  First Performance: Oct 02, 2015: The Esoterics, Eric Banks, St Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Seattle    Text SettingComposer’s NotesSource for Scores(P:E 222/322~2016-Q1)
Confessions from the Blogosphere – Voicing: SATB  Instrumentation: Unaccompanied  Performance Length: 5:40  Notation: Standard  Text Source: On-line blogs compiled by the composer  Language: English  Descriptive Terms: Blogs, Confession, Humor, Internet  First Performance: Jan 27, 2007: C4: the Choral Composer/Conductor Collective, Phillip Cheah, Norwegian Seamen’s Church, NY, NY    Text SettingComposer’s NotesSource for Scores(P:E 222/292~2015-Q2)
Vit encore la mousque, quel plaisir! – Voicing: SATB  Instrumentation: Unaccompanied  Performance Length: 3:00  Notation: Standard  Text Source: 15th Century Combinative Chansons, Maria Rika Maniates (trans.)  Language: French  Descriptive Terms: Early Music, Love, Profane, Sea  First Performance: Nov 18, 2010: C4, Martha Sullivan, St. Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church, NY NY    Text SettingComposer’s NotesSource for Scores(P:E 222/276~2015-Q1)
Maskil of David – Voicing: SSA  Instrumentation: Unaccompanied  Performance Length: 4:00  Notation: Aleatoric passages  Text Source: Psalm 55  Language: English  Descriptive Terms: David, Peace, Psalm, War  First Performance: Nov 15, 2005: Trio Eos, St. Paul’s Chapel, NY, NY    Text SettingComposer’s NotesSource for Scores(P:E 222/224)
Saguaro – Voicing: SSAATTBB  Solo(s): Soprano  Instrumentation: Unaccompanied  Performance Length: 4:00  Notation: Standard  Text Source: Karen Siegel  Language: English  Descriptive Terms: Desert, Environment, History, Immigration, Landscape, Nature  First Performance: Jun 08, 2007: Manhattan Choral Ensemble, Thomas Cunningham, Earl Hall, Columbia University, NYC    Text SettingComposer’s NotesSource for Scores(P:E 222/223)
Signifying Nothing – Voicing: SATB  Instrumentation: Unaccompanied  Performance Length: 4:00  Notation: Standard  Text Source: William Shakespeare, Macbeth  Language: English  Descriptive Terms: Death, Existentialism, Polyrhythm, Shakespeare, Time  First Performance: Feb 25, 2010: C4: the Choral Composer/Conductor Collective, David Rentz, Church for All Nations and St. Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church, NY    Text SettingComposer’s NotesSource for Scores(P:E 222/229)
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