Lucinda Carver
Chair, Keyboard Studies
Professor of practice
- Program:Keyboard Studies; Early Music; Conducting
“Carver makes musical thought manifest.” – Los Angeles Times
Lucinda Carver is a much beloved and highly acclaimed musician who is equally at home at the piano, the harpsichord and on the conductor’s podium. As a pianist, Carver’s performances as soloist and recitalist have met with extraordinary praise: “What made this one of the waning season’s special Mozart performances was the pianist’s ability, by means of perfectly gauged dynamics and subtly enhancing rubatos, to project the poignancy and resignation lurking behind the placid surface of the music. She seemed to capture the very essence of this elusive, unearthly music of parting.” – Los Angeles Times
A Fulbright fellow to Austria, Lucinda Carver concertized extensively throughout Europe. She has performed as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, Symphony Augusta, Capella Salzburgensis, Musica Angelica, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, among others, and frequently undertook the dual role of soloist and conductor 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. Since 2009 she has served as artistic director of the Centrum Port Townsend Chamber Music Festival and, from 2016-2022 she also served as co-artistic director/pianist of the Rencontres Franco-Américaines de Musique de Chambre in Missilac, France.
As conductor, Carver served as music director and conductor of the Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra for 11 years, where she garnered international critical praise for her stylistic interpretations of music from the Classical era. Active in both the symphonic and operatic arenas, she was 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. 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’s major symphonic credits include guest appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, 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, the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s Eclectic Orange Festival and San Francisco Symphony’s ‘Great Performers’ Series.
In the operatic realm, she has conducted productions of Don Pasquale with New York City Opera, Don Giovanni with Minnesota Opera, The Magic Flute and The Abduction from the Seraglio with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and The Marriage of Figaro with Virginia Opera.
Carver earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance (with secondary fields in conducting and harpsichord) at the USC Thornton School of Music, an Artist Diploma from the Salzburg ‘Mozarteum,’ and a Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music. Her teachers include renowned pianists Murray Perahia, Gary Graffman, Hans Leygraf, John Perry and Gwendolyn Koldofsky, with harpsichord studies under Malcolm Hamilton, and conducting studies with Gustav Meier and William Schaefer.
Carver enjoys a rich teaching career as a professor of piano, harpsichord and instrumental conducting. During her tenure at Thornton, she has received the Ramo Music Faculty Award (2018), the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (2017) and the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring (2016). In 2021, she was honored to be named a Bösendorfer Artist and Friend.