Karen Power is an Irish composer/sound artist, based in Cork, Ireland. Her creative output is diverse – from orchestral to installation and radio works – and for the last decade has been focused on field recording as a means of bringing everyday environments into artistic settings. Environments and how we hear every day sounds lies at the core of my practice, with a continued interest in blurring the distinction between what we consider ‘music’ and all other sounds. For over a decade, Karen has listened and recorded in some of the worlds most isolated locations, such as The Arctic, Amazon, Namib + Sahara Deserts, Outback Australia, New Zealand and Antartica. Resulting field recordings are most often paired with musicians and involve new types of ‘aural scores + parts’, co-creative techniques and live collaborative exchanges, which are unique to each pairing + constructed to encourage a shared active listening environment. Karen values development time and has been in receipt of global residencies such as; The Arctic Circle Residency, The Banff Centre, Mac Dowell Residency, Array Music, UCDavis and in 2015 she received a DAAD Award enabling residence in Berlin for 1 year. She has been commissioned by RTÉ Lyric fm, Bozzini Quartet, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Klangforum Wien, Irish National Opera, SCAW, Carin Levine, Sonar Quartet, Ensemble Mosaik, ConTempo, Quiet Music Ensemble, Ultraschall Festival, Musik Protokoll, MikroMusik, Music Current + NMD Festival.
Karen’s work has been awarded international awards and honorary mentions and she has represented Ireland internationally on a number of occasions, most recently @ ISCM and @ The International Rostrum for Composers. Her installation work and interest in field recordings has taken her music across many genres and art mediums including: video, dance, film, painting, sculpture, acoustic ecology and glass. This collaborative and multidisciplinary approach has enabled some of my more open-time music to be presented in spaces like galleries, parks, churches, warehouses and even a gaol, which offer audiences choice in how and when we listen.
To listen + read more go to: www.karenpower.ie