A carpenter (builder) is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors.

Carpentry skill is gained through experience and study. In some countries (such as the United States), there are no formal training requirements other than in trade unions, and the trade can be easy to enter. In other countries (such as Germany, Japan and Canada) there are strict standards.

The word "carpenter" is the English rendering of the Old French word carpentier (become charpentier) which is derived from the Latin carpentrius [artifex], "(maker) of a carriage. The Middle English and Scots word (in the sense of "builder") was wright (from the Old English wryhta), which could be used in compound forms such as wheelwright or boatwright. In British slang, a carpenter is sometimes referred to as a "chippy".

Carpentry in the United States is almost always done by men. With 98.5% of carpenters being male, it was the fourth most male-dominated occupation in the country in 1999.

The Carpenters were an American vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter. Though often referred to by the public as The Carpenters, the duo's official name on authorized recordings and press materials is simply "Carpenters". During a period in the 1970s when louder and wilder rock was in great demand, Richard and Karen produced a distinctively soft musical style that made them among the best-selling music artists of all time.

Carpenters' melodic pop produced a record-breaking run of hit recordings on the American Top 40 and Adult Contemporary charts, and they became leading sellers in the soft rock, easy listening and adult contemporary genres. Carpenters had three #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and fifteen #1 hits on the Adult Contemporary chart (see The Carpenters discography). In addition, they had twelve top 10 singles (including their #1 hits). To date, Carpenters' album and single sales total more than 100 million units.^{[citation needed]}

During their 14-year career, the Carpenters recorded 11 albums, thirty-one singles, five television specials, and a short-lived television series. They toured in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, the Netherlands and Belgium. Their recording career ended with Karen's death in 1983 from cardiac arrest following complications of anorexia nervosa. Extensive news coverage of the circumstances surrounding her death increased public awareness of the consequences of eating disorders.

Cameron Carpenter (born 1981) is an American organist known for his virtuosity, showmanship, technique and arrangements for the organ.

Carpenter has bachelor's and master's degrees from The Juilliard School in New York, having studied with Gerre Hancock, John Weaver, and Paul Jacobs. Though he is not religious, Carpenter was from 2008 to 2009 the artist-in-residence at Middle Collegiate Church in New York's East Village, where he played a four-manual virtual pipe organ that he designed for the broad ranging music of that church. Carpenter ended his residency in July 2009.

A champion of virtual pipe organs, Carpenter has been referred to as "extraordinary", "the most controversial organist in the world" and "meshing virtuosity with musical intelligence" while also attracting criticism.

Early in 2008, Telarc signed Carpenter to an exclusive five-album recording contract. His Telarc debut album, Revolutionary, was recorded as a CD and DVD at Trinity Church Wall Street in New York City, and released September 23, 2008. The title comes from Carpenter's transcription of Chopin's Revolutionary Etude. The album made Carpenter the first organist ever to receive a Grammy nomination in the category Best Solo Instrumental Performance (without orchestra) for a solo album. His first commercial album was a 2006 CD/DVD, Pictures at an Exhibition, on SeeMusicDVD. It includes his arrangement of the programmatic piano work by Modest Mussorgsky, and his own improvisatory "New York City Sessions." Visuals for the Moussorgsky were created by Marshall Yaeger and his Kaleidoplex. The recording was made at Trinity Church, New York.

Sarah Willis is a novelist and short story writer. She lives in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, USA. Her father, Kirk Willis, was an actor and director at the Cleveland Play House. Theater and the arts have informed much of Willis’ work, especially her second novel, The Rehearsal, which is about a theater troupe preparing a performance of Of Mice and Men. Her work is often set in either Cleveland, Ohio or Chautauqua, New York.

Her first novel, Some Things That Stay was listed as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, won the Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction 2000, and was awarded The Cleveland Arts Prize in Literature 2000. Some Things That Stay was made into a movie which opened in Canada in October, 2004.

She has published short fiction in Book Magazine, Confrontation, Crescent Review, (nominated for a Pushcart Prize), Vincent Brothers Review, Rockford Review, Whiskey Island Review, Riverwind, No Roses Review, Artful Dodge, The Missouri Review, and the anthology, Our Mothers Our Selves. She has published personal essays in The Plain Dealer in their Sunday magazine.

Karen Anne Carpenter (March 2, 1950 – February 4, 1983) was an American singer and drummer. She and her brother, Richard, formed the 1970s duo Carpenters, commonly called The Carpenters. She was a drummer whose skills earned her admiration from her peers, although she is most well known for her vocal performances of idealistic romantic ballads.

Carpenter suffered from anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder of extreme weight loss dieting, which was a little-known illness at the time. She died at the age of 32 from heart failure, caused by complications related to her illness which caused her to believe mistakenly that she needed to lose weight.

Carpenter was born in New Haven, Connecticut, to Agnes Reuwer Tatum and Harold Bertram Carpenter. When she was young, she enjoyed playing baseball with other children on the street. On the TV program This Is Your Life, she stated that she liked pitching. In the early 1970s, she went on to play as the pitcher on the Carpenters' official softball team. Karen's brother, Richard, had developed an interest in music at an early age, becoming a piano prodigy. Karen showed less interest in music as a young child. The family moved in June 1963 to the Los Angeles suburb of Downey.