Carolyn Southworth

Myspace Layouts Although born in Portland, Carolyn grew up in Pendleton, Oregon, where she began studying piano and violin at the age of 6. In her high school years she played violin and viola in her high school’s award winning orchestra. It was during this time that she formed a bluegrass band, Blue Mountain Grass, in which she was featured on guitar and fiddle. It was also while she was still in high school where her interest in music composition was sparked.
Carolyn began teaching both violin and piano while she was still in High School. During the summer she also taught guitar and folk music.
Carolyn went on to attend Brigham Young University as a music major, playing in a local bluegrass band for fun on the weekends called the Hobble Creek String Band, as well as playing viola in the BYU Philharmonic Orchestra. She also continued to teach both violin and piano, and has been teaching ever since.
Carolyn married Ron Southworth in 1973 in Salt Lake City. Utah. The couple has four children and at the present time, have five grandchildren. Only her daughter, Jennifer Thomas, has followed in her musical footsteps, just recently releasing her own album Key of Sea.
The Southworth’s have lived most of their married life in the State of Washington, where Carolyn has kept very involved in music, teaching, performing and composing. Over the years, Carolyn has published several works for a wide range of ensembles, including small orchestra, duets, trios, and quartets, from choral music to musical theater. In 1989 she wrote the musical score and lyrics for the musical stage play “Abinadi”, (script by Jack R. Jenkins,) which has been performed extensively in the Pacific Northwest. She has directed local choirs for over 25 years, as well as performing in a Piano Trio (piano, violin & cello) for much of that time.
Much of the inspiration for the music on her album, At the End of the Day, comes from her love of the water, boating, and the beauty she is surrounded by within the islands of the Puget Sound in Washington State. Carolyn tries to create visual pictures in the mind with the music she writes, inviting the listener to become a part of that picture and experience the depth of emotion that each song evokes. Her music has been described as haunting, evocative and healing, with uplifting, gorgeous poignant melodies. Most of the songs she has written reflect either a place she has been, or an experience she has had, yet the music allows the listener to apply their own experiences to the soundscapes.
..Discography..
At the End of the Day (Heron's Point Music 2006)
With a wide variety of styles, ranging from smooth jazz, to new age rock, pop to lightly classical in style, Carolyn’s music has the ability to touch the heart, and also to calm the spirit, uplift and edify.
At the End of the Day was produced by Grammy Nominee and guitarist Paul Speer, at Rainstorm Studios, in Bellevue, Washington. This album also features other world class musicians, including Richard Warner on flute/soprano sax, Douglas Barnett on bass, Steve Hill on drums and Matthew Burgess on percussion, along with Paul Speer on guitar and Grammy winner Nancy Rumbel on English horn and oboe.
CD Review from “Whisperin & Hollerin” (www.feeldesign.co.uk) by Adam Harrington, Dec. 2006
“At the End of the Day” has the fragile beauty and soulful depth of a painting, every note is a graceful stroke of the brush….Labels such as “New Age” or “jazz” cannot aptly describe the haunting, evocative qualities of these gorgeous instrumentals….What makes Southworth’s piano playing so engrossing is the emotional pull they create; they simply draw you in unlike many of her peers who keep their distance, letting us admire the sounds they create but not feel them…..The healing element of “At the End of the Day” is probably its greatest strength. This is the perfect record for tired or downtrodden souls, an antidote for the pains of the world.”
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