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The Canadian soprano singer and pianist, Carla Klassen, was born into a musical family and has sung and played piano for most of her life. She grew up attending concerts and participating in various musical endeavours at school, church and with her extended family members. Her first accompanying experience was under the direction of her father, a church musician and college music professor. She holds a Bachelor's Degree, ARCT and Licentiate Diploma in piano performance.
Carla Klassen is a busy piano teacher, church musician and accompanist and choral singer. In addition to accompanying the Ottawa Mennonite Church Senior Choir, the Bytown Voices Community Choir and various solo musicians, she is also a professional chorister, currently singing with the Isabel Voices, and recently completing a seventeen year tenure with the Ottawa Bach Choir (Director: Lisette Canton), where she was privileged to perform in many exciting venues, including the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Germany (Bachfest Leipzig), Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, St. Paul's Cathedral in London, the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing and Carnegie Hall in New York City. As an ensemble soprano, she received a JUNO award for Classical Album of the Year in 2020.
As a church musician, her interests also lie in the rediscovering of traditional hymns, having arranged for piano over one hundred and fifty of these sacred songs. These arrangemnets can be heard on her blog, The Hymn Project.
In addition to her music making, Carla is the author of two books of hymn reflections. These Songs We Sing: Reflections on the Hymns We Have Loved (Pandora Press, 2022) and Living Our Hymns: These Songs We Sing, Volume 2 (Pandora Press, 2024). Available through the publisher on on Amazon. |
