Carrie RavenStem works as both a freelance musician and teacher in the Louisville/southern Indiana area. She has performed with several orchestras and ensembles including the Louisville Orchestra, Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, Keep Louisville Symphonic, Louisville Chamber Winds, the Louisville Ballet, NouLou Chamber Players, Sacred Winds, and the Kentucky Opera. Her focus is on introducing audiences to living composers and contributing to the future of music by fostering the appreciation of new music.
Ms. RavenStem is co-founder and clarinetist of the contemporary music ensemble A/Tonal. With a mission to bridge the gap between traditional and new music, A/tonal explores with their audiences the correlations between traditional classical works and works of living composers. A/Tonal has been performing throughout the Kentuckiana area and has been featured on WUOLs The Unheard series, promoting the works of female composers. They have recorded an arrangement of NPR’s Morning Edition theme which may be heard on Soundcloud. In the summer of 2016, A/Tonal partnered with the Longleash trio as guests of their summer residency, The Loretto Project. The group’s premiere EP, Starting Point, was released on April 2, 2017, at their Kentucky Center debut. A/Tonal has also had a partnership with the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts in June 2017. They were in residency at the University of Louisville’s School of Music for the 2018-19 school year, with six new works commissioned for them by the student body.
With clarinetist and friend Adria Sutherland as her partner, clarinet duo La HERmandad was formed in 2020. The duo made their world debut in 2021 with the International Clarinet Association virtual conference Clareidoscope. In June 2022, the duo was invited to International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, to perform the world premiere of a newly-commissioned work The Mountain, composed by Jenni Brandon.
Carrie was a guest performer at the International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest in Knoxville Tennessee, in July 2018. She performed the solo work Perceptions of Strife, which was written for her in 2011 by Peter Felice. She was also a guest artist for WoodwindFest 2020, the world’s first international virtual woodwind festival, performing the music of Jenni Brandon with pianist Kara Huber.
Her current commissioning projects include the International Clarinet Association New Music Committee’s solo & piano consortium by Margaret Brouwer, a clarinet duet and piano work consortium project with Paul Schoenfeld, and a clarinet duo commission for La HERmandad with Erich Stem.
As a clinician and teacher in the Louisville/Southern Indiana region, she directs her attention to the short and long-term musical goals of each student. She runs an active teaching studio in her home in Louisville and works with several local schools and their clarinet sections. Ms. RavenStem has also been a clinician and guest artist at the University of Evansville’s Clarinet Day as well as clarinet and theory faculty for the University of Louisville’s Wind Band Institute. Carrie is on faculty at Indiana University Southeast in the Theory Department, and has taught for the community Arts Institute. Working in weekly coaching sessions and sectionals in local middle and high schools throughout the Kentuckiana area, Ms. RavenStem enjoys training young clarinetists and building future performers and audiences.
Ms. RavenStem received her Master of Music degree in Clarinet Performance from the University of Louisville, where she was a teaching assistant in both clarinet and music theory. Her bachelor’s degree was awarded high honors from Indiana University Southeast, where she was the 2011 recipient of the Outstanding Student Award in Music. Ms. RavenStem is a Backun Performing Artist and performs on Backun MoBa clarinets. She is also a Silverstein Pro Team Artist and performs on Hexa Gen 5 ligatures. Her reed of choice is Légère European Cut clarinet reeds.
Carrie enjoys sharing her musical life with her husband, composer Erich Stem, their four children, and their 3 cats, William, Charlie, and Sophie. Her secret hobbies are crocheting and making killer omelets.
