How Karen LeFrak Launched a Professional Music Career in Her 70s: 'The Dream Evolved as It Was Happening' (Exclusive)
How Karen LeFrak Launched a Professional Music Career in Her 70s: 'The Dream Evolved as It Was Happening' (Exclusive)
Lily BrownFri, June 12, 2026 at 10:45 PM UTC
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Karen LeFrak in New York City in October 2022Credit: Dave Kotinsky/Getty -
Karen LeFrak began her professional music career in her 70s
Her orchestral work American Promise was commissioned for America's 250th anniversary and recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra
Music producer David Foster helped introduce her compositions to a wider audience, praising her rare gift for melody
For most people, their 70s are a time to slow down. For composer Karen LeFrak, they marked the beginning of a career she never saw coming.
"Never, never, never," LeFrak tells PEOPLE when asked whether she ever imagined she'd launch a professional music career later in life.
Today, the composer, who turns 79 next week, has released 21 albums, amassed more than 60 million streams and is celebrating the success of her latest orchestral work, American Promise, commissioned in honor of America's upcoming 250th anniversary.
But LeFrak insists this wasn't a lifelong dream waiting to be fulfilled.
"I can't say it's a dream come true," she says. "It evolved, but I am certainly glad it did."
For much of her adult life, LeFrak was focused on raising her family. After graduating from college, she taught music before stepping back to focus on motherhood. When she struggled to leave her oldest son at nursery school, she found herself spending entire mornings in the school's kitchen.
The solution came unexpectedly.
"The head of the nursery school came over to me and said, 'Isn't there something that you could do?'" LeFrak recalls. "I said, 'Well, I can play the piano.' She said, 'Bingo, you're hired.'"
She went on to teach music to preschoolers for years, helping children develop early musical skills. But she never thought of herself as a professional musician.
"I thought of myself as a very fulfilled wife, mother, community advocate," she says.
Everything changed when she decided to return to school and pursue a master's degree in music. Inspired after hearing a friend perform Chopin's four ballades, LeFrak challenged herself to become a more serious pianist and writer.
Then came a pivotal moment. While her piano teacher was recovering in the hospital, she stopped practicing her usual repertoire and began improvising instead. When he returned and asked LeFrak to play, she handed him her own music.
"He looked at me and he said, 'You are a composer,'" LeFrak remembers. "I said, 'Okay, if I want to declare that I'm a composer, it's so that the grandchildren that I didn't even have yet would know one day that I had a voice.'"
From there, LeFrak began writing piano miniatures almost every day. Determined to learn modern composition tools, she walked into an Apple Store and convinced an employee to teach her Sibelius notation software.
"Prior to that day, or prior to that time when I learned it, I was using pencil and manuscript paper, which really takes a long time, and it's a lot of effort," she explains.
Those miniatures eventually grew into larger chamber works and orchestral compositions. One of her projects, a children's book titled Sleepover at the Museum, became a fully orchestrated score.
Then another life-changing moment arrived — this time in her own living room.
Music producer David Foster, a longtime family friend, stopped by while working on a project and discovered LeFrak's compositions for the first time.
"I handed him a piece of music, similarly to when I handed it to my piano coach," she says. "He looked at me and said, 'You have any more?'"
Katharine McPhee, Karen LeFrak and David Foster attend Publication Party For Karen LeFrak's New Book in 2019Credit: Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty
The reaction surprised her.
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"'Oh my God, you can write a melody,'" LeFrak recalls him saying. "'I don't know that many people who write melodies.'"
Foster remembers having a similar reaction.
"Karen and I were already friends, so I can't exactly claim I discovered her," he tells PEOPLE. "But one day I heard some of her music and thought, 'Well, that's annoying. She's actually really good.'"
Foster was so enthusiastic that he urged his manager to help introduce LeFrak's music to a wider audience.
"She has a natural gift for melody, and as somebody who's spent a lifetime chasing great songs, I know how rare that is," Foster says. "All I really did was shine a little light on it. The talent was always there. I guess it just goes to show that you're never too old to get discovered."
Her debut album, Harmony, arrived in 2021. More releases followed, and audiences responded.
Now, LeFrak's latest milestone is American Promise, a sweeping orchestral work commissioned for the nation's semiquincentennial celebration. The piece was recorded at Abbey Road Studios with the London Symphony Orchestra and features narration by actor Keith David.
The composition explores themes of freedom, liberty and gratitude, culminating with excerpts from the Declaration of Independence. Hearing her music performed by a full orchestra remains a surreal experience.
"It's out of body," LeFrak says. "It's just an out-of-body experience. It's so exciting."
That excitement continues to build. The work has already been performed by the Miami Symphony Orchestra, and LeFrak is eagerly anticipating a performance by the New York Philharmonic.
"I'm going to just be jumping out of my skin," she says.
Her music is also finding audiences beyond the concert hall. As part of the America 250 celebration, American Promise will be featured in Times Square and at a New York Public Library exhibition showcasing a special version of the Declaration of Independence.
Yet despite the accolades, LeFrak remains focused on what matters most: creating.
"I don't think of my age," she says. "I'm still vibrant. I hope people remember that I was a composer. Or just what I started out saying in 2006. I had a voice, and also that other people can have a voice, you know? If you don't think you have a voice, you probably do."
Looking back, LeFrak now sees her success as an American dream she never knew she was chasing.
"It is an American dream," she says. "Although I didn't think of it as a dream until David came and said get her music out there."
And even after 21 albums and millions of listeners, she's already thinking about what's next.
Her newest project is a planned orchestral work featuring conversations between solo instruments and strings, with each instrument embodying a different personality, from a "romantic" French horn to a "confidant" cello.
"I don't know what it's going to be like," she says. "But that's the dream right now."
American Promise plays nationwide on July 4.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
