Today we’d like to introduce you to Karina Pardus.
Hi Karina, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My story, like the story of many others, encompasses many twists and turns. I started playing piano at the age of 3, and my musical repertoire expanded through high school to include the clarinet, organ, melodic percussion, and voice. I graduated with a BA in Piano Performance and a Minor in Communications, believing that my future would be a life of performing. And I did for a number of years, and enjoyed every second of it.
Each step I’ve taken in my career has branched in unpredictable ways. My time as a professional concert pianist ended when my shoulder was injured and I had my first child. So my dream career morphed into having a successful private piano studio, which in turn led me into the field of music education where I now am the music director for the adults with disabilities program at Tanner Dance through the University of Utah. Just last April we performed Willy Wonka, Jr. at the Rose-Wagner studio, which was successful from the ticket sale perspective, but more importantly in the pride and enjoyment that our participants experienced both on and off stage. It truly is a joy to work with these amazingly capable actors.
My passion for composing piano solos and small string ensembles started in the beginning of my college years. It led me to learn how to compose music for video games, podcasts, and commercials. Even though I was able to work with amazing creators and developers, I struggled with some of the technological aspects of what is required to be a video game composer, and I made the decision to pivot, which has created paths for me to become an orchestrator. I enjoy so much being able to help composers bring their work to life in the studio with the most amazing musicians. Orchestration is truly the bridge between my love for composing and my passion for performance, and finding that path took almost 12 years after I shifted away from my performance career. How grateful I am for it.
Another twist I didn’t expect, is that my time working with game developers and other composers created opportunities for me to expand my network at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), and through that network I was hired to be the Associate Director for GameSoundCon (GSC) and the Production Manager for the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) Awards. Both of these positions have given me the opportunity to be a participant in the building of stronger and safer communities in game audio. None of these shifts could have been predicted, but they have each brought me so much satisfaction and excitement, and I couldn’t be more surprised or pleased.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Of course it hasn’t been smooth. I alluded to some of the struggles above, but I’ll start by saying that I think it is very important to be able to talk about struggle. Adversity is a fact that everyone will contend with, and I find that to be very hopeful because we are able to better understand each other in our shared humanity. It’s not about comparing who had it worse, or minimizing what happened because it doesn’t merit a level of sorrow or any other response. Sharing the struggle helps us to find connection in hidden places.
I have struggled with learning how to use the required technology effectively for my job, especially since my education didn’t include such a curriculum. I spent way more time in a practice room than I ever did at a computer. But I have made friends who are so gracious in their time and talents as to help me as I learn, providing resources and even allowing me to shadow them in their work so I can ask all the questions without feeling judged or shamed. Those people have truly been a blessing to me in my life.
One of the biggest struggles I’ve faced is my health. I mentioned a shoulder injury that began my transition away from performing. Then in 2021 I developed long COVID which initially incapacitated me for 8 months. Over time I have been able to adjust to the constant pain, but there are times when it feels insurmountable. Living with chronic illness is hard because it’s often not visible, and there’s no “get well soon” ending. But I have learned to seek for and plan rest shame-free, and that I don’t owe anyone my health. (I thank Sonya Renee Taylor for that second part. Her book, “The Body Is Not An Apology” came to me at the right time.) Learning to rest rather than burnout or quit has become a core principle of how I do my work. It’s also important to make time for play. Rest and play go hand-in-hand when it comes to doing my work the best I can.
The last struggle I’ll mention is in regards to systemic barriers in my industry. Although there are many people and studio leads who want to make the game audio industry a place where everyone can belong and create in community, there are stigmas and beliefs that get in the way. I have been turned down for jobs because I am a mother, because they didn’t believe that I would be able to manage deadlines effectively. (They gave the job to a father.) There are jobs that I have turned down or left because I didn’t feel safe to work there. Speaking up for workplace safety shouldn’t be controversial, and yet there are many who are unwilling to accept accountability, and so the (mostly) women who speak up experience retaliation and loss of job opportunities. But there are people who are speaking up. So although this can make working in this industry very difficult, I continue to try because industries are made up of people, and I believe that people can change where they are for the betterment of everyone in the community around them.
I have learned that everything in life comes in times and seasons. There are seasons of rest, seasons of success, seasons of not knowing what will come next, and seasons of grief and pause. My great-grandpa would say that some of these seasons are a bean season, some are a corn season, and some are fruit trees. (If you’re curious, beans bear fruit within 45-75 days after planting, corn in 4-8 months, and fruit trees between 3-7 years.) And as annoying as it is, struggle is an essential part of the growing.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My specialty is storytelling and connection building. The tools that I use to do that are different depending on the job. Sometimes I’m using music notes on a page so that the emotional connection can be created between the audience and the film or video game. Sometimes I’m using task lists to make sure that everything for a production is in place. That might sound much more disconnected, but the purpose of it is to enable people to come together, expand relationships and possibilities, and to experience a greater impact in their work. Everyone has a story to share, which means that listening is imperative. And there is a lot of opportunity to listen in the field of music.
What I’m most proud of is a hard question. I’m obviously proud of my performances and work accomplishments – those are easy to write out on paper. But I think deeper than that, I’m proud of the communities I’ve helped build, and that I’ve been able to be a part of. For example, the Female Composer Safety League is a nonprofit dedicated to supporting survivors of workplace and sexual abuse in the music industry, and to building safe, trauma-informed spaces where industry change can take place. I am immensely proud of the things we have accomplished in that sphere. I was the Treasurer at its founding, and last year I was voted by the Board to be the President which was and still is incredibly humbling to me. There is so much that we have brought to the industry, and so much more that we have to give, and I am privileged to see people giving it their all over and over again to make the music industry a safe place for everyone to create in. We have a benefit concert coming up at the end of June, and I’m really looking forward to that.
Another community that I love being a part of, is Utah Game Audio. This group is much smaller, but I believe carries great impact with it. It is no small feat to bring people together every month to discuss our passion and share our expertise as we cheer each other on, and Rachel Robison does an amazing job leading us in this endeavor. And that’s what is so great is that we never feel like we are in competition with one another, even though many of us are in the same field trying to get the same jobs. Because we are just as excited to see great people do a good job as we are to make our own art.
Then some communities are less regimented, but still important. One of those communities for me is the Charity EP Jam run by Chel Wong. We get together virtually once a year to come up with a theme, and then each of us writes a song based on that theme. It is amazing to me every time how different each submission is, even though they’re all based on the same prompt. Then at the end of the month we have a killer album with each of our songs contributing to the spectrum of what the human experience can sound like. We just released the album for this year called “Sanctuary”, and all proceeds go to Able Gamers, a nonprofit that combats the social isolation of people with disabilities through play and greater access to video games. It’s a great organization, and you can buy any track or album we’ve released in the past on Bandcamp.
How do you think about happiness?
There are so many things. My family definitely makes me happy. It is so fun to watch my kids learn and experience the world around them with such wonder, and to be able to teach them with my husband. That statement might make it seem like a perfect dream land, and it is not. Parenting in my experience is 90% hard and 10% joy. But somehow that joy really shines through with great power. I might not like being a parent moment to moment, but in the end I love it because of the moments that matter.
Nature makes me happy. I love leaves especially, aspen trees, and the mountains. I love basking in their diversity and how they ebb and flow with the seasons, and are beautiful in different ways as time progresses. Being out in the natural world helps keep me grounded.
And of course music makes me happy, and so does chocolate. It’s important to create space for the little things to prick our hearts over and over again.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.coycompositions.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coycompositions
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coycompositions/
- Other: https://charityepjam.bandcamp.com/album/sanctuary and https://www.femalecomposersafetyleague.org
