Karen Griebling

Karen Griebling is Professor of Music at Hendrix College. She conducts the Hendrix College Chamber Orchestra, a group she founded in 1990, as well as teaching viola, composition, orchestration, counterpoint, music theory and world music. Griebling is also violist with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and with the Cross Town Trio, an internationally recognized ensemble composed of viola, saxophone and piano that has performed throughout North America and in Europe and Asia.

A native of Akron, Ohio, Griebling came to Conway, Arkansas in 1987 after earning a DMA in composition from the University of Texas at Austin in 1986 under the guidance of Donald Grantham. She earned a MM from the University of Houston in 1982 where she was violist with the Daniel Dror Graduate String Quartet and studied with violists Milton Katims and Lawrence Wheeler, and with composers Carlisle Floyd and Michael Horvit. She also participated in master classes with Walter Trampler and members of the Budapest Quartet. Griebling earned her BM from the Eastman School of Music in 1980 where she studied with violist Francis Tursi and composers Sam Adler, Warren Benson, and Joseph Schwantner.

Griebling’s compositions have been commissioned and performed widely to warm receptions, and include operas, chamber music, ballet, choral and symphonic works. Griebling’s work as soloist and conductor may be heard on Centaur CD “Hovhaness for Horn, Voice and Strings”, as a composer on the Vienna Modern Masters CD devoted entirely to Griebling’s music, entitled “Wildfire!”. She and her colleagues in the Cross Town Trio released a CD on Centaur in December, 2010, celebrating their 10th anniversary. The CD features works commissioned by the trio including two of Griebling’s compositions. Griebling’s music is available through her publishers, Jeanne and Musicalligraphics, and directly from Griebling. Griebling is a BMI composer.