Carol Worthey is a RENAISSANCE WOMAN who has been recognized by awards in classical music, visual and literary art. As a multi-award winning artist, composer, educator, poet, writer, humanitarian and Toastmaster, Carol has devoted her life to creating multi-genre musical and artistic masterpieces. 

Carol expresses exactly why she considers music to be a vital force: "I believe that music has intense power to heal, that it transcends the burdens and cares of daily life. Music transports us to the true center of ourselves, to the realm of feeling and imagination where each of us becomes a universe entire. Music creates loving bonds between people and evaporates the walls that divide us. It is both an individual experience and the building of community. My greatest challenge as a composer is to create music of our time that is timeless, that hasn't tossed beauty out yet sounds fresh, that has emotional immediacy as well as technical craft. I strive to make my works heartfelt, accessible and engaging. Please remember that you the Listener are part of the equation. When my music speaks to you, you speak to me and thus the circle of communication becomes complete." 

A champion of women's music, Carol has been honored with the Mu Phi Epsilon ACME Award. Her article "Intriguing Counterpoint" (outlining how Carol manages to interweave creative work and dual careers in both music and painting) became the cover-feature in the 2007 IAWM Journal. In 2014 an international magazine article "Baby Steps to Destiny" revealed how Carol began her endeavors... practically from Day One: Leonard Bernstein was in her home on the day she was born and made hamburgers in the shape of stars, predicting, "This little girl's gonna be a star!"  In fact, Carol began composing at the age of three-and-a-half inspired by hearing Lenny conducting the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood. Among her famous mentors are Darius Milhaud, Walter Piston, John Harbison, Elliot Carter and Vincent Persichetti. 

Known for their passion, lyricism and power, Carol's deeply moving compositions have been performed on three continents, gracing top venues from Carnegie Hall to Aspen Music Festival to St. Martin-in-The-Fields. Carol is intensely grateful that her music continues to be performed by some of the world's top performers. They recognize in her "voice" something contemporary and fresh and yet very much in the Grand Tradition. Carol is an unabashed melodist, fashions subtle or powerful harmonies, and always works hard to give each player moments to shine. These outstanding interpreters have brought her music to France, Spain, Italy, England, Germany, Croatia, Switzerland, China, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Canada, and throughout the United States, from New England to Alaska. 

While Carol prefers to compose music for live concert (chamber music, choral music, symphonic pieces and art songs), she is equally adept at composing music for various genres, including film music, contemporary jazz, world music, pop, secular and sacred choir and musical theater. Case in point: Her 1989 filmscore for an HBO short film The Special Visitor was produced by George Lucas. 

After winning First Prize in Composition at Columbia for ballet music, Carol graduated from the demanding and enlightening Contemporary Composing and Arranging Program at the Grove School of Music in Studio City, California. In 1990 she won the Inner City Composer & Songwriter Competition for her Fanfare for Joy & Wedding March, created for her wedding ten years earlier to Ray Korns. A musical she composed (music, lyrics and script) in a single weekend (The Night Before Christmas) was performed by the Los Angeles Children's Theatre for five holiday seasons and was featured on Entertainment Tonight. In 2014 her spiritually powerful piece Pater Noster (The Lord's Prayer) for Baritone & String Quartet was premiered at University of California Irvine by Stefan Alexander Miller and UC Quartet. Carol's hip-hop song Neighborhood of The Heart was written after the Los Angeles Riots with lyrics in English, Spanish and Korean --- it was performed by Kids On Stage for A Better World all throughout Los Angeles, leading Carol to be nominated for a Legacy Award from the Hollywood Entertainment Museum. In 2014 Carol collaborated with her talented lyricist daughter Megan Worthey on a pop song Bring It designed to uplift children. It's no wonder then that --- with an ability to compose in diverse styles and yet to connect with the masterworks of the past ---  Carol loves to teach composers from her music/art studio in Porter Ranch, CA. 

As an advocate for Human Rights, Carol Worthey's music reaches out to peoples in all lands, using the power of music to extend understanding. In 2003 renowned Cellist Joyce Geeting commissioned and world-premiered Carol's Elegy (after 9-11), a composition that takes the listener from sunrise to sunrise of that fateful day, for healing purposes. The work has since been performed in three countries by three cello-piano duets. Worthey's  Jade Flute in Lo-Yang for Dizi, Erhu, Pipa and Western Chamber Group (combining elements of Chinese and western music) was world-premiered in 2008 in Beijing, China. Her Fanfare for the New Renaissance for brass ensemble (one of four works she has composed while dreaming in her sleep) was world-premiered in Florence and won a Special Recognition Award from the City of Florence and the Florence Biennale in December 2007. Since then the Fanfare has been performed often at Italian Brass Week, notably conducted by legendary Grammy-winner hornist Dale Clevenger and celebrated hornist Luca Benucci.

While Carol prefers to let other performers interpret her works, in 2011 she played her solo piano work The River live on international radio to a listening audience of a third of a million people. In 2010 Carol's Romanza (another of her works created during a dream) was world-premiered in Manhattan by outstanding Concert Pianist Beth Levin and Violinist Yuki Numata; it was given its European premiere in Alicante, Spain in 2011 at a concert where QuaTTro also world-premiered Valentine Sampler for Four-Hand Piano. In 2012 Luca Benucci honored Carol by recording her Romanza in a special transcription for horn and piano. In 2014 superb Violinist Yury Revich performed Romanza in Switzerland and Croatia, accompanied by pianist Matea Leko. In 2011 Rostropovich proteges Ruslan Biryukov and Maksim Velichkin premiered Carol's picturesque cello duet Russian Scenes. In 2012 Carol was commissioned to compose Sandcastles for a world-class flute-oboe-bassoon trio, the Weiss Family Woodwinds (David, Abe and Dawn), who premiered it at University of Southern California and recorded the work for Crystal Records. Carol's A Simple Ditty, premiered by flutist Aleksandr Haskins and pianist Mary Au, has subsequently been played by double bass, solo piano, coloratura, alto sax, and trio of french horn, tuba and piano. It is another work she dreamed in her sleep.  

In 2013 concert pianist Helen Lin world-premiered Fantasia and Pastorale on a program featuring music by John Adams, Rachmaninoff and Handel, taking this program on a seven-city tour throughout China. Pianist Stanley Wong, who has performed many of Carol's works at prestigious venues such as the Space Museum throughout Hong Kong, has commissioned a new work to be premiered in 2015. In 2013 Cellist Suzanne Mueller commissioned, premiered and recorded Carol's Solitaire. In 2014 Carol's Each Age Fades But Bach was selected to be part of the prestigious "15 Minutes of Fame/Composer's Voice" concert series, in a project "Homage to Bach" conceived and performed by master cellist Maksim Velichkin. The world-premiere took place at Brand Library of Music & Art in Glendale, California and Maksim has played the work in numerous venues throughout Greater Los Angeles.

Carol is also an advocate for Animal Rights: In 2013 she wrote the music for Rescue: A Dog's Story (a modern-day "Peter & The Wolf") based on a true story written and narrated by famous comedienne and animal rescue heroine Elayne Boosler. The piece was an enormous success with a large audience, delighting (laughing and weeping) at the music performed by Clarinetist Julia Heinen, Cellist Ruslan Biryukov and Pianist Dmitry Rachmanov. Not a dry eye in the house. Carol is currently orchestrating this work for full orchestra and has completed the cover artwork for the score, a drawing of beautiful Annie, the subject of this compelling story. The music takes you on Annie's misadventures on her way to her Forever Home and includes Klezmer as well as "classical."  

But with all this work and joy and commitment to music, we cannot omit something significant: Carol Worthey wasn't just a child-prodigy in composing. She drew incessantly as a toddler.  Her parents brought her to the world-renowned art conservatory RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) where she was tested by professors and allowed to participate in adult classes. Carol studied there until the age of twelve: anatomy at six, life drawing (sketching live nude models) at seven, oil painting, watercolor, sculpture, color theory and design. She continued to draw and paint from then on, and even settled for a while in beautiful art-colony San Miguel de Allende. 

In 2000 a signal opportunity inspired Carol to combine her visual art with her music. A city-wide art exhibit called "Community of Angels" was promoted in a local newspaper --- Carol spotted the announcement a day before the deadline.  Creating a song first, she designed her statue in a day and her husband raced her to the organization to submit her design a few minutes before they closed. The result: An estimated 650,000 visitors saw her interactive music and art sculpture Angel of Music that was proudly displayed at Los Angeles Music Center. A video of the statue and music can be enjoyed at Carol's website. 

In 2007 she was invited to show her paintings at the Florence Biennale International Contemporary Art Exhibit. Worthey has since had solo and group exhibits in Beverly Hills, Santa Monica California and Manhattan where her 2012 collaboration with Parisian sculpture Anne Ferrer was nominated for Best Curated Gallery Show by the International Art Critics & Writers Association. In 2014 Carol Worthey was delighted to be the Honorary Judge for a competition of very talented young Hong Kong artists. Carol's paintings are in the permanent collection of two museums, RISD Museum and Los Angeles Folk & Craft Museum and she continues to paint in a variety of styles and mediums from her studio in Porter Ranch, California. Alongside her tranquil best-of-show watercolors and dynamic Mermaids of The World series sits her new art series Jigsaw Puzzle Hearts --- it pops!

As a writer, Carol's poems have been published in several anthologies and she has won numerous poetry competitions. In 2014 she completed her first novel, an adventure/fantasy story called The Adventures of Crumb initially based on her father's fascinating bedtime stories. The novel has an important ecological message. A non-fiction book Turning Life into Art: How A Composer Works is to be published in 2015 and contains the insights of 70 illustrious living composers. 

To give a voice to multiple genres, sight and sound, feeling and intellect, that is what makes Carol's artistic creations exciting and memorable. To read more about Carol Worthey, please visit www.carolworthey.com.