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A native of Leiden, Holland, Karel was
raised in Calgary, Canada and began his professional musical career in
1970. In 1973, he studied jazz arranging and composition at the
prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and
completed a degree in secondary music and mathematics education at the
University of Victoria in 1981. He is frequently a featured specialist
at jazz workshops, and his weekend improvisation course at the
Metchosin International Summer School for the Arts is in its tenth
year. Karel still loves to play the piano and plays in clubs, concert halls and in the studio whenever possible. He has led bands for Howie Mandel, Rich Little (and his lesser known brother Fred), Bob Newhart, Shari Lewis (and Lambchop), and Ted Knight, played with the Moody Blues, Powder Blues Band, Jan Arden, The Shirelles, and Leslie Gore, and opened for the Temptations (with vocalist April Gislason) and legendary jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli. He writes jazz tunes for his own and other groups, and has played with jazz greats such as Bud Shank, Ian MacDougall, Pat LaBarbera, Don Clark, Floyd Standifer, Roy Reynolds and many well-known vocalists. He's regularly asked to play at jazz festivals as both leader and sideman. Karel has composed extensively for film, television and video productions. He co-wrote music for the film In the Company of Men, which won the Filmmakers' Trophy at the 1997 Sundance Festival, and was an official selection for the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. He has also co-composed for several internationally televised series, among them Good to Go for the CHUM Network, Police Academy - the series (Fox Network in USA, and networks in ninety countries), Undersea Explorer (Outdoor Living Network et al), Safari - Ocean Adventures, (on Discovery Canada, NHK Japan and others), Take Off, a children's series (on Family Channel, CTV et al), and The New Body Moves, an aerobics series (Canada-wide, also shown internationally), along with innumerable educational, corporate and travel videos, receiving national and international awards such as the Peabody Award (for Threads of Hope, the ITVA world-wide award, and many others. Television credits also include a great many themes and scores for documentaries, news, drama and children's programs broadcast world-wide. Karel's first solo album Keys, recorded in 1988 and distributed by Midsummer Music, has received wide critical acclaim. An album of Christmas carols entitled Do You Hear What I Hear? followed in 1991. Since then, on the Midsummer label (internationally distributed by Tandem Music), Karel has written, performed, and recorded four music and nature sounds albums: solo piano albums Piano by the Sea and Orca Suite, and orchestrations Classics for Relaxation (with Mark Bracken), and Wings of Summer. An orchestral suite co-written with Kenneth G. Williams for the Butchart Gardens was released in 1993 on the Holborne label. Another piano solo CD, Thinking of You - Themes of Friendship was released by Midsummer in 1996. A jazz trio CD of original tunes entitled Cat Fud was also completed early in 1996. Since then, Karel has completed two solo piano concert albums, Blue/Green and Suites and a jazz album, kr3+ featuring the trio with special guests Gary Karr, Dan Lapp, and Paul Wainwright. His latest three CDs, Nature Boy, Tea Favourites, and Do You Hear What I Hear? are all solo piano performances, recorded at the University of Victoria. For more on the recordings, see the Discography page, and for reviews, see the Press page. In the field of children's music, Karel was musical director and keyboardist on Birds, Beasts and Babes by Pat Carfra (the Lullaby Lady), chosen by the Ladies' Home Journal as one of the six all-time best children's bedtime albums, keyboardist and arranger on John Demers' My Backyard, and George Dixon's series of children's musical stories. He has just completed writing a series of music for interactive toys made by Fisher Price. Outside of his musical career, Karel served a term as councillor and two terms as mayor in his home municipality, the District of Highlands, between 1993 and 2005. He currently serves as councillor, and chairs the Greater Victoria Library Board and the CREST Finance Committee. He is also a board member of Metchosin International Summer School for the Arts and founding board member of the Island Biodiesel Co-op.  |
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