Kari Watson (b. 1998) is a composer and sound artist working between the mediums of contemporary concert music and electroacoustic music. Motivated by a passion for narrative and musical drama, Watson works to create music that is clear, tactile, and emotionally driven. With roots in vocal study and performance, her work is informed by the vocal line and her work often incorporates text.
Watson’s work has been premiered in the United States and abroad by several ensembles, most recently, Quatuor Diotima, the Constellation Men’s Ensemble, the Axiom Brass Quintet, and the Friction Quartet. Watson’s work has also been featured on a variety of concerts and festivals, such as at Chicago's Ear Taxi Festival and at the New Music Gathering.
Upcoming projects include a work for solo harp and electronics for harpist Ina McCormack, a BrassLegacy commission for a trio for members of Axiom Brass, a new work for organ and electronics, and a piece for Chicago’s Civic Orchestra. In tandem with her compositional work, Watson has been teaching private composition lessons since 2018, and has taught lessons for Through the Staff, a nonprofit focused on promoting equity and accessibility to marginalized communities through quality music instruction at no cost, since 2020.
Her work has been recognized by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and Broadcast Music Industry (BMI). Watson holds a BM from Oberlin Conservatory in Composition, with a minor in TIMARA (technology in music and related arts) and is currently pursuing a Ph.D at the University of Chicago under Augusta Read Thomas.
Kari Watson's Three Places for string quartet premiered on April 9, 2022 with Quatuor Diotima.
Program notes:
Three Places for string quartet is made up of three sonic portraits of special places that I frequented over the course of the last two pandemic years. Each of these locations has provided me some sort of refuge and fresh air, helping me navigate this challenging solitary and sedentary time. In each movement, I focus on capturing different aspects of an environment, from distinct sonic markers like the doppler effect of a train horn around a campsite, to more abstract character driven evocations of a visual like that of wine grapes strung between trees in a vineyard field, to more musical depictions of vivid imagery like that of the fluctuating surface of Lake Michigan. This piece turned into a valuable opportunity to reflect on where and how I have found comfort in the last few years, and with it, I felt a renewed sense of gratitude for both these places of refuge, and for our greater natural world as a whole.