Welcome
Concert Pianist/Composer and Recording Artist for Albany Records, Karen Walwyn, is known for her two volumes of music by American composers entitled Dark Fires along with her recent premier recording of the Florence Price Concerto for Piano with the Black Music Repertory Ensemble by invitation of the Center for Black Music Research. As a Duke Mellon Faculty Fellow, (2011-12), she completed her most recent composition entitled “Of Dance & Struggle” a monumental choral work celebrating the life of Nelson Mandela. Ms. Walwyn spends equal amounts of time in writing, composing and performing internationally as well as conducting piano workshops and master classes.
Concert Pianist, Albany Recording Artist, Composer, Educator, and Author
PBS Interview
Karen Walwyn’s Musical Tribute to Mother Emanuel of Charleston, NC
Reviews
“fearless throughout, managing every challenge with precise fingers and heroic command of textures.” Cleveland Plain Dealer | “confident and impressive pianist” American Record Guide | “virtuosic, meditative, energetic…and vividly evocative” Washington Post | “provides a magnificent account of the concerto displaying her considerable technical skills” NPR Classical
Arts Daily Interview
Jeanette Guinn interviews Steinway Artist Dr. Karen Walwyn
WRUU Dave Lake with Karen Walwyn
Click below to listen:
Compositional Debut
As a budding composer, Ms. Walwyn made her compositional debut at the Kennedy Center receiving a standing ovation for her solo piano work entitled “Reflections on 9/11”. “Imaginatively conceived and executed, it both disturbingly transposes the catastrophe into appropriately cataclysmic sound and artistically suggests the aftermath’s lingering sense of numbing devastation.” – Robert Schulslaper of Fanfare Magazine. The demand for concerts of this seven-movement ‘tour de force’ work continuously takes her across the nation for command performances. Read More
Recent Events
Mother Emanuel
Mother Emanuel by Karen Walwyn, was composed weeks after the horrific tragedy that occurred on June 17, 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina. This work for piano solo includes 7 movements. I am presenting three at this time….
Reflections on 9/11
Robert Schulslaper, a writer for Fanfare Magazine stated: “Reflections is a large-scale work in seven movements and Walwyn has the concentration, intensity and technique to focus attention on its every phrase and transformation…
Florence B. Price…
“Karen Walwyn is an excellent pianist, and her playing in the concerto lends a wonderful air of breathless excitement to the proceedings. I cannot recommend it highly enough.” (Fanfare)