Louis S. Karchin was born Philadelphia in 1951 and studied at the Eastman School of Music, at Harvard University, and as a Leonard Bernstein Fellow in Composition at the Tanglewood Music Center. He also studied opera conducting.
Karchin amassed a portfolio over more than 85 compositions over the course of his career that have garnered countless honors such as a Guggenheim Fellowship, numerous National Endowment for the Arts Awards, and many more. He has been composer-in-residence at the Composers' Conference at Wellesley College, Indiana University, the University of Buffalo, the University of Iowa, and the University of Utah. He has also presented master classes at Harvard, Columbia, Brandeis, Cleveland State, Rutgers, the Juilliard School, Westminster Choir College, the Manhattan School of Music, Mannes College, and Queens College.
As a conductor, Karchin is music director of the Orchestra of the League of Composers as well as a conductor of the Washington Square Ensemble and the Chamber Players of the League–ISCM. Additionally, he is a professor of music at New York University.
