Biography

“Carver makes musical thought manifest.”
– Daniel Cariaga, Los Angeles Times

Extremely gifted and versatile, Lucinda Carver enjoys a prominent career as pianist, harpsichordist, and conductor. As music director and conductor of the Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra from 1992-2001, Carver garnered critical praise for her stylistic interpretations of music from the Classical era. Active in both the symphonic and operatic arenas, she has been proclaimed “a find… a first-rate conductor” by Bernard Holland of The New York Times and “an important emerging conductor” by Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times. Carver’s symphonic credits include appearances with the National Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, Richmond Symphony, and Hong Kong Philharmonic. She has conducted at major music festivals, including Wolf Trap, Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival, and the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s Eclectic Orange Festival, and she was featured at Davies Hall as part of the San Francisco Symphony Great Performers Series.

Carver has conducted productions of Don Pasquale with the New York City Opera, Don Giovanni with the Minnesota Opera, Die Zauberflöte and Die Entführung aus dem Serail with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and Le nozze di Figaro with the Virginia Opera. With the Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra she conducted two critically acclaimed recordings on the RCM label, featuring Haydn Symphonies Nos. 43 and 48 and Mozart Symphonies Nos. 17, 29, and 34. She also led the orchestra on two North American tours under the aegis of Columbia Artist Management, highlights of which were featured on CBS’ Sunday Morning.

Carver is also a highly acclaimed pianist and harpsichordist. As a Fulbright Fellow to Austria she concertized extensively throughout Europe. She has performed as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, Musica Angelica, Capella Salisburgensis, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, and Manhattan Philharmonic, and frequently took the dual role of soloist/conductor in Mozart piano concerti with the Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra. Carver has been featured in solo and chamber music recitals at the Carmel Bach Festival, San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, Prince George Music Festival, and under the aegis of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Her performances have been broadcast across the United States on National Public Radio, WNYC, WGBH, and locally on KUSC and K-Mozart. In Fall of 2009 she was named artistic director of the Centrum Port Townsend Chamber Music Festival.

Carver earned a doctor of musical arts from the USC Thornton School of Music, an artist diploma from the Salzburg Mozarteum, and a master of music from the Manhattan School of Music. Her teachers include pianists Murray Perahia, Gary Graffman, Hans Leygraf, John Perry, and Gwendolyn Koldofsky, harpsichordist Malcolm Hamilton, and conductors Gustav Meier and William Schaefer. In 1998 she joined the faculty at the USC Thornton School of Music, where she teaches piano, harpsichord, and conducting.



Video Interviews with Lucinda Carver:
About Lucinda Carver
Lucinda Carver’s Education and Training
Reviewing Past Performances
Career Regrets
Challenges of Conducting Opera and Classical
Conducting Different Sections of the Orchestra
Creating Cohesion when Conducting an Ensemble
How to Know if you are Conducting a Successful Performance
Preparing to Conduct a Performance
Building a Strong Relationship with your Ensemble
Advice for Parents of Musicians
Is Context Important when Conducting a Work?
What Responsibilities Does a Conductor have to the Audience?
Playing the Harpsichord
Programming Concerts
“Classical Music” and the “Music of our Time”