ACCORDION STUDIES
Karen has been playing the piano accordion for 15 years and studied under Dale Wise (Virginia) and the famous Tejano player Eva Ybarra. She has also taken lessons and workshops from Jon Persson (Seattle), Stas Venglevski (Milwaukee), and Helmi Harrington (Minnesota), and Larry Malmberg (Minneapolis).
PIANO STUDIES
Karen studied piano performance and pedagogy with Emily Ireland from 2007-2009. She also attended a master class with William Westney in 2008.
ACADEMICS
Karen obtained a B.A. Ethnomusicology/ with Minor in Music Theory from the University of Washington. She has been teaching privately for five years and formerly at the Brass Bell Music Store, Milwaukee, where she also managed the lesson department.
CURRENT PERFORMANCES
Karen regularly performs on stradella, freebass, and bass accordions in Dreamland Faces, an ensemble whose repetoire spans early and obscure standards, Chinese folk music, and western art songs. She has also been a member of Carpscale Orchester, a Minneapolis based group of string instrumentalists and keyboardists who play tangos, gypsy music, and originals.
REPAIR
Karen was a full time accordion service technician for Hohner, Inc. in Richmond, VA from 2000-2002. In 2005, she attended a summer apprenticeship program in accordion repair at the World of Accordions Museum in Superior, WI. She has also studied repair techniques with Dale Wise, owner of Accordion Plus.