Carol Lipnik's music does more than evoke a shadow-world of mysterious, often misunderstood creatures, from sideshow freaks and b-movie monsters to love's obsessive victims. It creates that world, bringing it into audible being through her stunningly versatile four-octave voice and expressive, impeccably crafted songs. Her live shows draw audiences in with an intimacy and intensity that is both theatrical and deeply musical. Whether performing as a duo with pianist Gordon Beeferman or with a full-band featuring Michael Visceglia on bass guitar, Mark Bonder on piano, and Matt Beck on guitar, lap steel and ukulele, her repertoire - ranging from mad, carnival-ride tangos and waltzes to dramatic Bowie-esque rock and intricate, semi-acoustic art songs is unified by the singer's visionary commitment to the beauty of strangeness and the strangeness of beauty. Carol Lipnik's songs and performances are, in the truest sense, enchantments. 

Carol Lipnik, grew up in Coney Island in the midst of its long decline. Her earliest memories are of shyly pedaling a blue banana-seat bicycle around the abandoned amusement park (especially off season) and staring up at the totem-like, decaying rides. After studying fine arts at Pratt Institute and The Art Students League, Carol opted for the immediate, emotional gratification of singing, and found that she had a knack for it -- as well as a seemingly limitless vocal range. She drew from her visual arts training to create a singular cinematic style rooted in Blues, Pre-War Berlin Cabaret, Folk, etc., as filtered through her very own carnival and psychedelic sensibilities. 
Carol’s popular weekly performance residency with Matt Kanelos on piano at the East Village Boîte Pangea has repeatedly been a featured top cabaret critic’s pick in Time Out. Carol has built a dedicated following through performances at Joe’s Pub, The Rose Theater at Lincoln Center, The David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center, The Abrons Arts Center, the Hudson Opera House, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, The Ancram Opera House, and The Spiegeltent at Bard. She has released seven CDs on her Mermaid Alley Music label; “Almost Back To Normal”, was funded by a grant from the Peter S. Reed Foundation. She has collaborated with and composed music for performance artist John Kelly's “The Escape Artist” and these songs are included on his debut CD recording “Beauty Kills Me”, She composed the score Mythologies (with Scott Killian and Jacob Lawson) for the Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance Co., and was a recipient of the Kimmel Center Theater SEI Residency Program with Mexican composer Tareke Ortiz (in collaboration with The Joe's Pub and the Public Theater), and was the 
winner of the 2015 Broadway World New York Cabaret Awards for Best Alternative Cabaret Show.
Carol is a four time artist-in-residence at the Yaddo Art Colony in Saratoga Springs, NY.


 
 
 Carol Lipnik's haunting, enigmatic art-song collection, Almost Back to Normal
is now available!
Buy/ Hear samples now
A collaboration with luminous pianist Matt Kanelos and eclectic violin virtuoso/producer Jacob Lawson, the new album blends lush, mystical soundscapes with hints of the baroque, jaunty Brecht-Weill cabaret, old-school soul music and the avant garde, all of it imbued with Carol's signature phantasmagoria and droll, absurdist humor. Recorded using an 1895 Steinway grand piano in the world-class sonics of Peter Karl Studios in Brooklyin, it's a collection of tersely intense songcraft and longer-scale, psychedelically-tinged mood pieces. 
Pinhole photos by Stefan Killen
 
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