Karen LeFrak has filled many roles throughout her life, wife—mother, grandmother, teacher, author and poodle breeder. She is also an accomplished composer with a catalogue of over 300 works and a worldwide performance history that includes the New York Philharmonic, the Shanghai Symphony and the Mariinsky Ballet Orchestra.
It’s been a busy summer for LeFrak, and she shows no signs of slowing down. Fresh off the celebration of Romántico, her guitar concerto collaboration with Grammy-winning guitarist Sharon Isbin and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, LeFrak is already looking ahead to multiple milestones. She is preparing for the release of her 15th solo piano album, “Consolation,” while also readying an ambitious orchestral project, “American Promise.” Timed to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the new album features the title track, commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra, alongside the sweeping Lady Liberty Suite—consisting of “Lady Liberty—Arrival,” “Lady Liberty—The City,” and “Lady Liberty—A New Land.” It will conclude with “Prairie Dawn,” a new work for solo clarinet and strings. With the single “American Promise” set to debut in February 2026, coinciding with its world premiere by the National Symphony Orchestra, LeFrak is orchestrating a summer that blends celebration with anticipation.
Fairytale Romance
LeFrak, who is married to New York real estate developer Richard LeFrak, has embraced each facet with exceptional passion and vigor, and she spoke to us about her very fulfilling life with warmth, humor and a “pinch-me” sense of gratitude.
Even the story of her marriage is like a fairytale romance; she first met her husband Richard when she was 15 and he was 17 at a party attended by both of their families. “His father took me by the hand and said to Richard, ‘I‘ve known this little girl since she was born. Ask her to dance,’” LeFrak said. “And Richard asked me to dance, and I looked up at him—he was six foot three and I was five foot two—and I thought, oh my God, he is just amazing, with a great shock of blond hair and the bluest eyes. I had a mad crush on him.” They dated on-and-off for seven years, and he proposed on Valentine’s Day of her senior year in college. “We got engaged and 54 years later, here we are.” They have two sons, five grandchildren and two poodles, and split their time between Manhattan, Southampton and Miami.
Thriving Music Career
LeFrak is a natural-born musician who began playing the piano by ear at age three, and in the sixth grade wrote her fi rst song, which was performed at her Merrick, Long Island school. “It was called ‘I’ll Sing,’ and when I played it for the music teacher, she had the whole school sing it at an assembly.” LeFrak’s father sat in the front row, beaming. “I’ll sing for pleasure. I’ll sing with delight, I’ll sing with my heart, I’ll sing with all my might.” LeFrak recalled the lyrics, laughing, “They sounded like a Hallmark greeting card.”
In high school LeFrak joined the choir, and her talent took her far. “I learned the rudiments of harmony because we were singing in four parts: soprano, alto, tenor, bass,” she explained. “If you have a good ear, you can apply that to the instruments in the orchestra’s woodwinds, brass and strings sections.” She excelled in music theory classes. “I could always count on my music grade to bring up my whole average.”
Life took her in diff erent directions, and LeFrak only became serious about a music career as an adult, once her children were grown, but it was always alive in her. She even taught music at her children’s nursery school. “I didn’t want to leave them alone at the school, so the director of the school found a job for me.
“I was sorry I didn’t major in music at Mt. Holyoke College, where I earned my BA degree cum laude,” she said. “So around 1986, I returned to school to pursue a master’s degree in musicology from Hunter College.” Her award-winning thesis, which won the Dean’s Award in Arts and Humanities, surveyed the commissioning activity of the New York Philharmonic from 1842 to 1986. “I was inspired to study piano seriously after hearing a friend perform the four Chopin Ballades at a house concert. I was so taken by her performance that I couldn’t get out of my chair. I arranged for lessons and practiced several hours a day. After a while, when my piano coach went to the hospital, I composed my fi rst solo piano miniature instead of playing
my repertoire. My teacher was impressed and encouraged me to continue! I felt I could never play or interpret what I heard as well as I wanted, so I made a conscious decision to give up playing and only compose instead. It was my goal to have my grandchildren (whom I didn’t even have yet) know that their grandmother was a composer. I wrote a lullaby for each when they were born. Polly’s lullaby later became the Whale’s theme in ‘Sleepover at the Museum.’”
From piano, she went on to study composition and, with the help of notation software and two very able professional musicians—a
conductor and scholar—taught herself to arrange music for multiple instruments. There, followed solo, chamber and orchestral compositions, which were performed by ballet companies, chamber groups and orchestras.
Composing Every Day
LeFrak continues to compose piano miniatures every day and describes them as having lyric melodies with interesting harmonic structures that say the most with the fewest notes. When asked about creating that number of compositions, she replied, “Where does the inspiration come from to make 300 individual paintings?” Even as a child, when LeFrak improvised, her mother told her she could always tell how she felt by her music.
Brimming With New Projects
And she’s been busier than ever in recent years; the pandemic provided much time for reflection, creativity and inspiration, leading to LeFrak recording and releasing 13 studio albums since 2021. “They include such titles as ‘Interlude,’ ‘Tomorrow,’ ‘Gratitude,’ ‘Clarity,’ ‘Continuum’ and ‘Awakening,’” she said. “The latest are titled ‘Penumbra,’ ‘Gemstones,’ ‘Verdure’ and ‘Echo.’ There are 40 solo piano pieces being recorded.”
Superstar violinist Joshua Bell praised LeFrak’s first album project, Interlude, saying, “Karen LeFrak is a true renaissance woman. One can find much-needed peace and comfort in this beautiful collection of piano miniatures.” Music industry powerhouse David Foster also weighed in on her debut album, saying, “Karen LeFrak’s melodies are haunting, memorable and simply complex. Melody is king and Ms. LeFrak does not disappoint.” This last fall LeFrak, released a holiday album, “Christmas Cookies,” consisting of chamber music. Karen’s streaming totals now exceed 50 million.
Venues: Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, White House & ABT
LeFrak’s works have been commissioned and performed across the United States, Europe, Russia and Asia, including at David Geffen Hall and the Koch Theatre at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Moscow’s Kremlin for the 250th anniversary of the Bolshoi Ballet School, Symphony Space in New York, National Sawdust in Brooklyn, Bethel Woods Arts Center, Festival Napa Valley and the White House, where her
musical works “Acceptance” and “The New Yorker Trio” were performed at an International Women’s Day luncheon.
Miami Concerto Debuts in the U.S. Capitol
A highlight last year was the premiere of “Miami Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra” by the Miami Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Eduardo Marturet with the Grammy Award-winning guitarist, Sharon Isbin, as soloist. Its first movement was performed at the National Symphony Orchestra’s annual Labor Day concert on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol—also with Isbin—and conducted by Enrico Lopez-Yañez. It was performed at the Aspen
Music Festival this summer, as well as at the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. A recording of a chamber orchestral version of this piece was conducted by Lopez-Yañez with Isbin as the soloist and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s.
‘Cover’ Assignment—Beyonce & Rihanna
LeFrak was floored to be asked to submit music for the new television series “Queen Charlotte,” a spinoff of “Bridgerton.” “They gave me the assignment of taking a Beyonce and Rihanna piece, and developing classical versions of them,” she said. “I had such fun doing that!” In the end, her composition did not make the cut, but the experience proved useful—one of the instruments she chose was the celesta, a keyboard instrument with a delicate, bell-like tone similar to a glockenspiel. When it was time for her Christmas album, she featured it. “In the ‘Sugar Plum Fairy,’ in the Nutcracker, it’s the very high, crystally, tinkly instrument that immediately says joy. So, the celesta made the piano and chamber pieces on my album sparkle.”
Children’s Books
When she launched her career as a composer, LeFrak also made her debut as an author of children’s books, to much acclaim. The first two, “Jake the Philharmonic Dog” and “Jake the Ballet Dog,” introduced young people to the worlds of music and dance. The idea for this canine character came from LeFrak’s work with the New York Philharmonic; the principal stagehand actually had a mixed-breed terrier named Jake, a well-loved presence backstage, serving as mascot, greeter and stress-reliever.
As an author, LeFrak has been invited to speak and read at schools, museums, bookstores and concert halls throughout the country, including the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Miami’s Frost Museum of Science and New York City’s famed public library. In her third book, “Best in Show,” LeFrak shared her passion for raising and breeding standard poodles. Her most recent book, “Sleepover at the Museum” (2019), was named a 2020 International Literacy Association CBC Children’s Choice title. She decided to write a musical composition to Sleepover, which has now been played all over the world. After its premiere in Miami, it was performed in Shanghai, Beijing, Washington, D.C., California, Omaha, Montana, Singapore, Winston-Salem, Nashville and New York. A ballet version was performed in Chicago and Guatemala; it will have future bookings in Winston-Salem and Anchorage. “I’ve witnessed conductors and orchestra members on stage in pajamas!,” she says.
While LeFrak has published four successful books, she’s written three others that did not make it into print. Instead, she had them illustrated and bound and gave them to her grandchildren. “One of them was about their dog, and another was about a dog who went to the hospital to bring comfort to medically fragile children and adults.”
LeFrak started the pet therapy program at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York and brought her own dogs there. She also brought her dogs to NYU Hospital and to the piers to comfort victims and families of 9/11. “It was one of the most rewarding volunteer jobs I ever had.”
karenlefrak.com
