Kara Gibbs is a composer and communications professional living in Vancouver, Canada on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She studied composition at the University of British Columbia with Keith Hamel, and is currently continuing her studies with composer Jennifer Butler. Recent premieres include a Vertical Orchestra commission for 30 percussionists presented by Reshift Music in April 2023, a video recording of “Everything Unfinished” for solo erhu written as part of Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra’s Sounds Global initiative and “That was the Year” for percussion quartet premiered at Vancouver Pro Musica’s Sonic Boom Festival. She recently composed an original electroacoustic soundtrack to accompany the animated short “The Garden of Absolute Truths” by visual artist Valerie Hird and animator Martin De Geus which was on display at the Burlington City Arts Center in Vermont.
Kara was a participating composer in Art Song Lab 2020, and her work “Tegami”— a Canada Council commission for flute, guitar and soprano based on the text of poet and fellow Japanese-Canadian Carolyn Nakagawa—was premiered in 2019 at the VICO’s Global Soundscapes Festival. A new arrangement of Tegami for expanded ensemble was premiered in January of 2024. Her piece “Untitled Scenes: Two Remembered and One Imagined” written for flutist Mark McGregor and pianist Rachel Iwaasa was featured on the Tiresias Duo’s Trade Winds album, a composition WholeNote Magazine called a “discovery” that “covers the gamut from playful to meditative and serene.” She performs regularly with the Balinese ensemble Gamelan Gita Asmara.