Karen Power is an active composer, improvisor + educator. Her compositions utilise two primary sources; acoustic instruments and everyday sounds, spaces and soundscapes.
Everyday environments and how we hear everyday sounds lies at the core of Karen Power’s practice with a continued interest in blurring the distinction between

what most of us call ‘music’ and all other sound. She has found inspiration in the natural world and how we respond to spaces we occupy. She continually utilises our inherent familiarity with such sounds and spaces as a means of engaging with audiences. Resulting works challenge the listeners memory of hearing while simultaneously shifting focus and presenting new contexts for such sounds. Karen’s current practice revolves around her development of aural scores + parts as alternate methods of communication with performers.

Karen has been a featured composer @ RTÉ Horizons concert series with the Irish National Symphony Orchestra. She was composer in residence for Galway Music Residency, The Arctic Circle and in 2015 was awarded a DAAD Artist-in-Berlin Residency Award. Recent commissions and festival performances include: Sonar Quartet, Thomas Buckner, Ensemble Mosaik, ConTempo, Isabelle O’ Connell, Bozzini Quartet, RTÉ Lyric fm, Ultraschall, CTM, MikroMusik, MEN Festival and CorkMidSummer. Recent premiers include: location, location, location (2019) @ NMD Festival, invitation to wander @ CorkMidsummer Festival 2019 + a new work for Retro Disco for ensemble + video. Karen’s improvisatory work has resulted in performances with Pauline Oliveros, David Toop, The Quiet Club, John Godfrey, Ute Wassermann, Mazen Kerbaj and many others. She also continues to perform as a solo soundscape improvisator around the world.

Karen’s installation work and her recent interest in field recordings has taken her music across many genres and art mediums including: video, dance, film, painting, sculpture and glass. This cross-arts approach has enabled some of her more open-time music to be presented in spaces like galleries, parks, warehouses and houses, which offer audiences choice in how and when we listen. In 2017, Karen became founding chair of Sounding the Feminists, a collective seeking equality in music across Ireland.

Karen’s First solo CD ‘is it raining while you listen’ is released with Farpoint Recordings: http://www.farpointrecordings.com