Louis Karchin (born September 8, 1951) is an American composer, conductor and educator who has composed over 90 works including unaccompanied and chamber music, symphonic works and opera. Karchin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is Professor of Music at New York University. He received a B. Mus. degree from the Eastman School of Music, an M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University, and was twice a Leonard Bernstein Fellow at Tanglewood. His principal teachers included Samuel Adler, Joseph Schwantner, Leon Kirchner, Earl Kim and Gunther Schuller.