Biography
"When I was a child I stood in the crux of a yellow birch tree, laid my hand on the smooth, round surface left by a trimmed limb, and swore that I would be an angel. I have a difficult time explaining whom I was making this oath to, but I've tried to hold myself to that promise. As it turns out, being an angel is a lot harder than a ten-year-old kid might think.
"Like every songwriter out there, I write music because I have no other choice. When I walk, I step to the pace of music. Melodies spring from my emotions, and my thoughts are haunted by metaphors that tell me that everything in this world mirrors the world of music. There is no escape.
"Simultaneously, I am the willing slave of music, for only it can grant me liberation. Happily am I under its watchful eye, for it saves me from my solitude.
"As you can probably tell, I also have an ongoing love affair with poetry. I'm enchanted by the English language: its flexibility, its potential for vagueness and double-meanings, its rhythmic nature.... I find it incredible how languages shape the very way we perceive the world around us. To pass up the chance to explore these possibilities when writing lyrics, or anything else for that matter ... that strikes me as a crying shame, is all."
OFFICIAL BIO
Kara McGraw's local renown began during her school years in East Montpelier, Vermont, where her performances drew crowds of more than 200 people. The capstone project of her arts-based senior year in high school was the performance of her musical "A Man Concealed by Time," a Civil War drama she fully scored for small orchestra and choir. In 2001, Kara won the Vermont Young Composers scholarship award for her song “Comic Books and Flashlights.”
Kara received her Bachelor of Music in Music Composition from the Ithaca College School of Music in 2005. During her college years, Kara had the opportunity to score for orchestra, small ensemble, and chorus and to conduct and perform her own works with as many as 44 musicians in a given concert.
On January 24, 2009, Kara’s chamber work “Tale of Tam Lin, The Elf Knight” was premiered at The Seattle Chamber Music Society’s 11th annual Winter Festival. This piece was performed at Benaroya Hall, nicknamed the Carnegie Hall of the Pacific Northwest. This work was performed again at Mexico City's National Center for the arts in 2011.
Kara is currently composing the script and score for her largest work for the stage, yet: a musical that celebrates the triumph of compassion over prejudice and explores modern day culture clashes through the telling of a story set in the 1970’s. Kara's great hope is for her music to inspire creativity, courage, and compassion in others.