Photo courtesy Karen Beaumont
Karen Beaumont
Karen Beaumont
Karen Beaumont is a contemporary composer living in Milwaukee who has maintained a relatively low profile in the Cream City. Present Music fans will recall her as the organist for many years at the group’s annual Thanksgiving concert at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist; she was also organist at St. James Episcopal Church until 2011. Her own work—primarily for organ but also for choir, piano and violin—has gained recognition elsewhere with performances in concert halls and cathedrals in the U.K. and Canada and around the U.S. Her album of French noëls was released on Pro Organo, a classical music label, in 2020.
Beaumont grew up in Hartland, WI, “when it was still a small town,” she says. “I am told that I was singing by age 2. Began piano at 8.” Her fifth-grade teacher insisted she join the band and made sure a French horn was available. “When I was 11, my choir director discovered that I could play the piano and had me accompany the choir,” she continues. “Their care and attention were miracles, and I am still regularly grateful.”
By age 13, “I knew that music would be my life. I really didn't know any musicians and had no idea what that meant. I read everything I could find, did as much music as my life circumstances allowed.” Beaumont graduated with a music history degree from UW-Milwaukee but “while I am grateful for this, 90% of my music knowledge comes from self-study and experience.”
Her assertion is born out in her music, which eludes the usual categories. The inching toward grandeur revolutions of The Third Day of Creation: A Phrygian Randonnée suggests—at moments—Philip Glass as a church organist—or maybe J.S. Bach in the 21st century. Her Trumpet Voluntary occasionally sounds East Asian while Tocata, Interlude, and Fugue is heavily atmospheric, very much in the European tradition and entirely suitable as the score for the cinema of intelligent psychological horror.
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“I have a colleague at Harvard, Carson Cooman, who has been very encouraging,” she says. “He often suggests themes. Having said all of that, there is always a very personal, private narrative driving the piece. No one needs to know it, nor should they—the piece should speak without any reference. But it does drive the emotional content for me.” Cooman performs her music at his lunch time concerts at Harvard, during services at Harvard Memorial Chapel, has used certain works in teaching situations and regularly records and posts her music on YouTube.
Beaumont doesn’t identify with any current or recent musical trend. “I have no interest in that,” she insists. “If I were to define my compositions, it is that they are aware of what has come before but live their own life: my goal is to create a narrative and emotional arc that speaks via the medium of sound I am working with.”
She currently plays organ in a variety of ecclesiastical settings, including St. Hedwig’s Catholic Church, All Saints Episcopal Cathedral, the First Unitarian Society, Old St. Mary’s Catholic Church and the Milwaukee Catholic Home. “Since November of 2020, I have been putting together compilations for the Older Wiser Local Program which airs once a week on Riverwest Radio. My shows, all quite varied, always feature my recordings along w/ other musicians and are interspersed with literature (my short stories, poems of others past and present, others’ short stories).”
