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Kori’s saga of her musical quest to share her soul stemmed from her childhood. She heard the Beatles on the radio and began to plunk out tunes on the piano and as she figured out the songs without any musical knowledge, Kori knew right then that she wanted to play the piano. She took piano lessons, listened to many varied artists, and, at age 14, began to compose music. Her parents did not know what to do with her talents. As far back as she could remember, music always painted imagery in her head. She was always listening to something on the record player in her homes in Minnesota and Texas.
Her favorites were Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Band as well as many of her favorite classical composers. “I remember when I was little, sitting next to the record player and putting my head down to the speakers to hear everything going on,” says Kori.“I was amazed at the varied instrumentation that brought the songs I loved together so well.” Kori also had a tape player with headphones. “I would fall asleep listening to John Williams’ Star Wars Soundtrack.”
She hears music in her head all the time and composes when she feels like expressing herself. “Many people ask if I plan and write out my compositions, but I don’t do that,” says Kori. “Technically, I am not great at notation. When I feel like I need to say something musically, I sit down, work out a melody, and record everything I do.”
>br>At 16, Kori found a small recording studio in Texas and recorded two songs. “I loved doing that so much, I just knew this was something I wanted to do!” says Kori regarding her experience. At 18, she left home and went to college in Idaho, where she was classically trained in order to pursue her musical dream. But for financial reasons, she needed to put college on hold and go home to Texas. As she worked, she still believed in her dreams and continued to compose her own music. In 1991, Kori moved to San Diego, California where she met and married her husband and put aside her musical pursuits to begin a family. She gave up her dreams to be a performer, but continued to take piano lessons through the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. “My teacher, Mrs. Jensen, told me I was concert pianist material and that I could achieve my dream!” With that knowledge, she continued to work on her skills in musical technique and theory. Five years ago Kori’s husband took her to see Yanni and she felt her old musical flame resurface. “My husband must have sensed my feelings,” she says, “because he asked me if I was interested in returning to my music. I laughed and asked him if it was a trick question! He told me that I should get a keyboard. I told him that “if I do get a keyboard it will NOT be a little tiny keyboard…it’s going to be a Korg.”
In 2003, Kori’s husband encouraged her to continue composing and actually release her music on the internet. So in 2004, she released her first album, The Road Less Traveled. Then, the following year, she released a blend of synthesized and organic instrumentation with her second recording, The Journey. Bill Binkleman of Wind and Wire comments “On her second album, pianist/keyboardist Kori Linae Carothers paints on a more dramatic canvas than on her debut CD, layering synths (mostly strings, chorals and washes) underneath her passionate piano melodies.”
Kori is currently working on Trillium, her third album slated for release in early 2009. "I don’t like to listen to people telling me how I should sound like so and so. I just compose what I want my music to be like and what is inside of me.”
Kori's Music can be found at the following places:
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