Original Compositions / English Translations of Art Songs & Arias / Program Notes
Chasing Karma
Kari Henrik Juusela (b. 1954) is a Finnish/American composer, cellist and educator who is presently the Dean of the Professional Writing Division at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Prior to his work at Berklee College of Music, Juusela served as the Associate Dean, Director of Composition and Almand Chair of Composition at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida.
Juusela's compositions have won awards in numerous competitions including the 1995 Vienna International Full-Length Opera Competition directed by Claudio Abbado; First Prize, 2003 International Red Stick Composition Competition; First Prize for mixed ensemble, London Chamber Groups 2003 "Piece of the Year Competition"; Second Prize, 2004 San Francisco American Art Song Competition Established Professional Category; First Prize, 1989 GASTA String Quartet Composition Competition; Grand Prize and First Prize in 1998, and five awards in both the 1996 and 1990 Composer's Guild Composition Contests; and numerous awards from ASCAP.
He was awarded the 1997 Stetson University Hand Award for Faculty Research and Creativity, received a 1997-98 Florida Council for the Arts Individual Artists Music Composition Fellowship, and has been the recipient of many other composition honors. He holds degrees from The University of Maryland, Georgia State University and Berklee College of Music.
According to the composer, "Chasing Karma ... is a hard-driving, obsessive, imitative chase between two protagonists, slowing only briefly in the middle for the performers to catch their breath. The strings unabashedly display and flaunt their technical assets performing rapid scalar passages, left hand pizzicati, harmonics, and bold double, triple, and quadruple-stop chordal assertions. The musical language of Chasing Karma is an eclectic mix drawing from sources disparate as Finnish folk music and expressionism."
A recording of Chasing Karma may be heard on the composer's myspace page, at http://www.myspace.com/karijuusela