Executive Director
Pronouns: he/him
loki@composersforum.org
Loki Karuna (formerly Garrett McQueen) is a bassoonist who has performed with orchestras including the Detroit Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He’s been heard as both a performer and host on local and nationally syndicated radio programs including “Performance Today” and “Music Through the Night” and has continued his work as a public radio producer and broadcaster on series including The Sound of 13, Gateways Radio, The Sounds of Kwanzaa, and Noteworthy Classical in partnership with institutions across the United States.
Away from the airwaves and performance stages, Loki is a thought leader at the intersections of contemporary culture, western classical music, and racialized identity, offering guest lectures, facilitating training sessions, and leading dialogues with collaborators including the Gateways Music Festival, the Sphinx Organization, the Kennedy Center, the Apollo Theater, the San Francisco Symphony, Cornell University, the Peabody Institute, Yale University, and the Manhattan School of Music. In the press, Loki has been noted as not only a “classical agitator”, but also “a Black talent in public media that you may not know but should”. In 2021, the New York Times noted his podcast, TRILLOQUY, as “required listening”. In 2024, Loki became a recipient of the MPower Arts Grant from the Sphinx Organization for his work in broadcast and digital media, and was named among Musical America’s “Top 30 Arts Professionals of the Year.”
Loki holds music degrees from the University of Memphis and the University of Southern California in Bassoon Performance. In addition to working as a musician, arts administrator, and media producer, Loki maintains professional affiliations with Decolonizing the Music Room, Lyrica Baroque, the Gateways Music Festival, the Cedar Cultural Center of Minneapolis, and the Lakes Area Music Festival.
Loki is a practitioner of Nichiren Buddhism and spends his free time studying Black history and Eastern philosophy, eating plant-based cuisine, and enjoying life with his partner, Dell.