Jacques van Tuinen
Biography Jacques van Tuinen
Jacques van Tuinen
A native New Yorker, composer and author Karen LeFrak has created vibrant, moving musical scores that have been presented in prestigious concert halls across the globe. She is an ardent champion of musical and literary education for children and has received wide accolades for her children’s books published by Bloomsbury, Random House, and Crown Books.
Ms. LeFrak’s works have been commissioned and performed by a wide variety of prominent institutions and artists worldwide including the New York Philharmonic; American Ballet Theatre; Mariinsky and San Francisco Ballets; Shanghai and Miami Symphony Orchestras; and pianist Anne-Marie McDermott; among many others. Her compositions have been heard at esteemed venues across the world including David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, Russia’s fabled Mariinsky Theatre, National Sawdust, Festival Napa Valley, and the White House.
The 2021-22 season holds performances of Sleepover at the Museum at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with the National Symphony Orchestra, the world premiere of Jake the Philharmonic Dog with the Miami Symphony Orchestra led by Eduardo Marturet, and chamber work performances by the American Composers Orchestra in New York and Gloriosa Piano Trio in Georgia and New York, among others.
In March 2021, Ms. LeFrak began releasing a beautiful cache of short solo piano pieces as a four-volume album project called Interlude, performed by Jacques van Tuinen. Each volume of the series captures a theme of discovery from this extraordinary period of Interlude during the pandemic – Harmony (March 5), Inspiration (June 4), Gratitude (September 10), and Clarity (December). The project also includes visual pairings of each work. Superstar violinist Joshua Bell applauds the album saying, “Karen LeFrak is a true renaissance woman. One can find much- needed peace and comfort in this beautiful collection of piano miniatures." The released tracks have already accumulated over four million streams on Apple and Spotify, with inclusion in dozens of curated playlists. David Foster also celebrates the album saying, “Melody is king and Ms. LeFrak does not disappoint to even a nano second!!!"
Of Ms. LeFrak’s over 270 compositions, she has written several powerful orchestral works including the multimedia children's scores Sleepover at the Museum, orchestrated by Bill Ross, and Jake the Philharmonic Dog. The dynamic and robust works bring to life Ms. LeFrak’s children’s books by the same name with the help of a narrator. Her ballet scores have received wide acclaim including Cake, Pavlovsk, Gentle Memories, and Tous Les Jours. Her scores have been choreographed by Maxim Petrov, Jiří Bubeníček, Gemma Bond, Juliano Nunes, and more. Yoonie Han of the Gloriosa Trio recorded Ms. LeFrak’s solo piano work, Ombres d'été, for Steinway’s Spirio, a highly-respected player piano. A number of works from Ms. LeFrak’s catalog have also been recorded by the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, Mariinsky Orchestra, and Gloriosa Trio.
Ms. LeFrak has introduced children to the worlds of music, dance, and dogs in her four acclaimed children’s books – Jake the Philharmonic Dog, Jake the Ballet Dog, Best in Show, and Sleepover at the Museum, which was named a 2020 International Literacy Association CBC Children's Choice Title. She has been invited to speak and read at museums and bookstores throughout the United States including the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the New York Public Library, among many others.
Ms. LeFrak is a member of the President’s Council of the Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering and she previously served on the New York State Council on the Arts. She received her master’s degree in musicology from Hunter College winning the Dean’s Award in Arts and Humanities for her thesis, “In Search of the New Classics,” which surveyed the commissioning activity of the New York Philharmonic from 1842-1986. She was elected to the Hunter College Hall of Fame in 2010 and was featured in Good Housekeeping's “10 Amazing Women In The Arts Over 50” in 2017. Ms. LeFrak studied composition privately with Robert DeGaetano, Jonathan Anderson, and Daniel Boico. She is married to Richard LeFrak and has two sons, five grandchildren, and two poodles.
