Kari Watson has a passion for narrative, and works to create music that is energetic, tactile and emotionally driven. With roots in vocal study and performance, she often incorporates text into both her vocal and instrumental works. She has set the works of poets such as E.E. Cummings, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, and Henrik Ibsen. Kari began studying voice at the Longy school of Music in 2010, and continued on to study at the New England Conservatory in the preparatory studies division. While studying composition with Margaret McAllister at NEC, she expanded her study to include classical voice, improvisation, piano and conducting. Kari has been featured in workshops and programs such as the Alba Festival in Italy, the Brevard Institute’s summer composition fellowship, Eastman School of Music’s summer composition intensive and New England Conservatory’s Contemporary Festival. Kari has been programmed by a variety of ensembles, from the New York based Ensemble MISE-EN, San Antonio's SOLI Chamber Ensemble, to the Rosetta Chamber Ensemble in Kyoto Japan. Most recently she received the Ruth Crawford Seeger Award from the Alba Festival, and her work has been premiered in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Kari is a third year composition student at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she studies with Stephen Hartke, Elizabeth Ogonek and Jesse Jones under a dean’s scholarship.