Larry Dean Karpenko
1944 - 2012
Larry Karpenko, singer and conductor, taught music for ten years in two Seventh-day Adventist academies. He then worked as a real estate investor for over thirty years while continuing to sing as a soloist and as a member of choral groups.
Larry was born in Minot,
North Dakota, one of three sons of Fred A. and Anne A. Moseanko
Karpenko, both of whom were children of Russian
Immigrants. Music was important in the
home, and all three boys were supported in their music activities whether it be
learning a band instrument or singing as a trio.
After attending high school
for two years, Larry enrolled at Campion Academy in Colorado, where he studied
voice with Merritt Schuman and sang in his choirs. Schumann, who became an
inspiring mentor for Larry, recognized the outstanding quality and potential of
his voice and shared with him his interest in the Westminster Choir College
concept of singing. He made it possible for him to attend the summer WWC Vocal
Camp in Colorado by recommending him for a scholarship.
He also featured Larry as a
soloist in a presentation of the Messiah
in December 1972 and in a May 1963 performance of Theodore Dubois’ Seven
Last Words of Christ. After graduating from CA that spring, he enrolled at
Union College, where he studied voice for one year and sang in the select
choir, the Unionaires, under Lyle Jewell. He also was
one of the soloists in a December performance of the Messiah at UC.
Larry then applied to
Westminster with a heartfelt letter expressing his desire to become the very
best singer possible so that he could be a good teacher and share the message
of salvation. He gained acceptance and then distinguished himself as a student,
chosen as a member and soloist in the Smith Princeton Chamber Chorus, a select
group that traveled to Europe in 1965. Also during his years at WCC he sang as
a soloist on the Faith for Today television program.
He
was a member of the renowned Westminster Choir and had the opportunity to sing
under many great conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Leopold Stokowski, Sir Malcom Sargent , George Lynn, and
others. The conductors came on campus to prepare the choir for their New York
Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra performances.
His
experiences at WCC and the friends that he made greatly influenced him. Each
year Larry tried to return to Alumni Weekend to experience the marvelous music
and the graduation exercises in the Princeton University Chapel. He would
invite friends to go with him because he wanted to share the Westminster
experience with other people.
In 1967 he met Donna J. MacDevitt, an elementary education major at Columbia Union
College, now Washington Adventist University, when she accompanied him for a
solo at the Trenton SDA Church in New Jersey. He encouraged her to pursue
additional piano study, which she did under Betty Christensen at CUC in her
senior year. After he graduated from WCC
with a B.Mus. in music education in 1968 and they married, she became his
lifelong accompanist.
Although they were both
offered teaching positions in New Jersey that summer, when the opportunity for
Larry to teach music at Sheyenne River Academy in Harvey, North Dakota (later
relocated and renamed Dakota Adventist Academy) opened, they responded and were
there when school started that fall. For the next three years he taught voice
and directed the choir in addition to managing the farm in his first year and
directing the band in the next year before finally only directing the choir and
teaching voice in his last year.
In his first year at SRA, Karpenko and his eighty-member chorus joined forces with
two nearby high school choirs to create a 300-member chorus that performed the Messiah.
He was bass soloist in the concert. In 1969 Karpenko
directed the community chorus in Harvey in the Seven Last Words of Christ and was also guest soloist with the
Minot Symphony Orchestra and Chorus when they presented the Messiah later that year.
In 1970 he received an award from the Jaycees as the Outstanding Educator in the Harvey area. He also made two records, Sheyenne River Academy Sings, and The First Sabbath Morning up in Heaven, the latter featuring groups and soloists, including himself, from that area of North Dakota.
Those recordings led to an
offer in 1971 to teach at Blue Mountain Academy in Hamburg, Pennsylvania. In the next seven years Karpenko
developed an outstanding choral program at the academy, and he became a
favorite teacher, known affectionately as “Mr. K.” When the select choir, Bel
Canto Singers, was invited to sing for both the Senate and House of
Representatives of the Pennsylvania legislature in Harrisburg in 1972, the
latter gave him and the group a standing ovation. He completed an M.Mus. in vocal performance at Trenton State University, now the
University of New Jersey, in 1974.
Karpenko had definite convictions about vocal
production and singing with a full resonant voice, part of his Russian
heritage, while being sensitive to musical nuance. His personal solos and
training of students and ensembles reflected these beliefs and the result
inspired those who listened.
After leaving BMA to pursue a
longstanding interest in business, he continued to be musically active, singing
as member in and soloist with the Wheatland Chorale in Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
a professional level ensemble of about 32 members; Berks Grand Opera; and the
Reading, Pennsylvania, Choral Society. He was known for the richness and
musicality of his baritone voice, described by one of his former teachers at
Westminster as “glorious” and by many who heard him sing on countless occasions
and in numerous venues as “magnificent.”
His wife, Donna, recently
recalled his pleasure in being a member of the Wheatland Chorale and his last
performance with them as a soloist:
In
1995 Larry was encouraged to hear the Wheatland Chorale located in Lancaster,
Pennsylvania. After the concert, he
turned to me and said, “Now that’s a group I would like to sing in.” He
auditioned and became a member and a soloist. He drove an hour each way to
attend the rehearsals every week and was instrumental in recruiting several
outstanding soloists in the area.
In
April this past year Larry sang two of the bass solos from the Brahms Requiem beautifully in four concerts with
them. We were unaware at the time that this would be his last performance with
the chorale. We knew he had a blood disease, but we didn’t know it had
progressed into leukemia. He had started
to have shortness of breath and was tired after he sang.
While
in the hospital, he was asked to sing for the main service for the Pennsylvania
Camp meeting but was unable to accept. God blessed him with a beautiful voice,
and Larry enjoyed singing and sharing his music. The Wheatland Chorale sang two
numbers at his funeral service.
Karpenko also served as an elder in the Blue Mountain Academy Church and as a member of the academy board for seventeen years and chaired the Blue Mountain SDA Elementary School board for a number of years. Additionally, he directed the Bel Canto Singers, the eighty-member BMA Choir, and taught voice lessons once a week in 1991 on a volunteer basis, with Donna serving as accompanist for Bel Canto. Both he and Donna were cited for their contributions to the academy when she recently accepted the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award, following his death.
The Karpenkos’
two children, Julie A. and Larry Dean II, have both been active as musicians, Julie (Reid)
completing a degree at Westminster and now teaching at Andrews University as an
adjunct instructor in voice and Larry, a graduate of Loma Linda University,
pursuing a career as a singer and arranger in Southern California. Julies’s husband, Charles, an opera singer, is Coordinator
of Vocal Studies at AU.
ds/2013
Sources: Interview with Donna Karpenko, January 2013; Obituary, Minot Daily News, 18 July 2012; Central Union Reaper, 14 May 1963, 8; Northern Union Outlook, 24 January 1969, 6; Columbia Union Visitor, 5 March1970, 13; 17 February 1972, 8; Numerous tributes at leibenspergerfuneral home.com/book-of-memories (2012); personal knowledge.