Biography
Karen Reeves has been working with young singers at HGO since 1991. She is a Grammy Award winner, having served as chorus master for the HGO Children’s Chorus in the Houston Symphony’s performance of Berg’s Wozzeck, which won the 2017 Grammy for Best Opera Performance. She prepared HGO’s Juvenile Chorus for the world premiere of The House Without a Christmas Tree in 2018 and has also prepared the HGO Children’s Chorus and child soloists for such operas as Werther, Otello, Carmen, La bohème, Dead Man Walking, Tosca, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Han-sel and Gretel, and The Little Prince, as well as the spring 2021 outdoor performance at the Univer-sity of Houston, My Favorite Things: Songs from The Sound of Music. She was a member of the HGO Chorus for 13 seasons, and during the 1999–2000 season, she became the founding director of the Bauer Family High School Voice Studio, HGO’s intensive program for high school students preparing for further vocal music study. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from Southwestern Uni-versity and her Master of Music degree from Rice University. She taught on the voice faculty at Houston Baptist University, and for more than 20 years she taught in the voice department of Hou-ston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts as an artist consultant. She has served as a grant evaluator for the Texas Commission on the Arts music and opera advisory panel. She is the opera program administrator at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.
Repertoire
Children’s Chorus Director:
TURANDOT 1993-94, 2003-04, 2021-22
STREET SCENE 1993-94
CARMEN 1994-95, 1997-98 (Miller Outdoor Theatre and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion), 2000-01 (Mainstage, Miller Outdoor Theatre and on tour to Philadelphia, PA), 2005-06, 2013-14 (Mainstage and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion), 2021-22
DER ROSENKAVALIER 1994-95
ATTILA 1994-95
LA BOHÈME 1995-96, 2002-03, 2007-08, 2012-13 (Mainstage, Miller Outdoor Theatre, and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion), 2018-19 (Mainstage, Miller Outdoor Theatre, and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion)
TOSCA 1996-97, 2003-04, 2009-10 (Mainstage and Miller Outdoor Theatre), 2015-16 (Mainstage, Miller Outdoor Theatre, and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion)
BORIS GODUNOV 1996-97
HANSEL AND GRETEL 1997-98, 2006-07 (Mainstage and Miller Outdoor Theatre)
BILLY BUDD 1997-98, 2007-08
MEFISTOFELE 1998-99
PAGLIACCI 1999-2000 (Miller Outdoor Theatre, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, and HGO tour to Philadelphia, PA), 2008-09
THE LITTLE PRINCE 2002-03 (World premiere), 2004-05, 2015-16
THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN 2006-07
THE REFUGE 2007-08 (World premiere, Mainstage and Miller Outdoor Theatre)
THE QUEEN OF SPADES 2009-10
DEAD MAN WALKING 2010-11
OTELLO 2014-15
A HOUSE WITHOUT A CHRISTMAS TREE 2017-18 (World premiere)
THE PHOENIX 2018-19 (World premiere)
WERTHER 2022-23
Children’s Musical Preparation:
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM 1992-93, 2008-09
TANNHÄUSER 2001-02
THE MAGIC FLUTE 1996-97, 2003-04, 2007-08, 2014-15 (Mainstage, Miller Outdoor Theatre, and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion), 2021-22
PIECES OF 9/11 2011-12 (World premiere)
MY FAVORITE THINGS: SONGS FROM THE SOUND OF MUSIC 2020-21 (TDECU Stadium)