|
Originally from Cromwell, Connecticut, Karen always claimed she was singing before she was speaking. She started singing with recordings at the age of four and by the time she was seven she entertained the neighborhood by holding small musical productions in her home. After participating in church choirs, local community musical theatre productions and studying classical voice at Richard Donohue Studios, Karen was selected to tour Bavaria and perform with the Concordia Youth Choir sponsored through the Boston Conservatory. In her late teens the “jazz bug” bit her… swing, latin jazz and R&B filled her soul and the rest is history. She started studying jazz piano with Merrill Doucette at the Hartford Conservatory and then moved on to study jazz/pop vocals and performance with Roberta Peck-Vater, a well known music educator and Capitol Records recording artist. Karen moved to Cape Cod in the 1980’s and worked with local and Boston area musicians as a vocalist participating in benefit concerts, jazz venues, and weddings. She has shared the stage with many premier jazz artists including Dave McKenna, world-renowned pianist; Dick Johnson, band leader for the Artie Shaw Orchestra and Gray Sargent, guitarist currently with the Tony Bennett Orchestra. She moved back to Connecticut in the early 1990’s and has since been performing in the Northeast as well as other parts of the country. Karen has a very diverse sound. Within her 5-octave range, her vocal styles cover breathy ballads to heart-wrenching blues, sexy Latin rhythms to up-tempo swing and more. Although she has been influenced by some of her favorite artists… Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Ella Fitzgerald, Shirley Horn, Maxine Sullivan, Rosemary Clooney… Karen has developed a sound all her own. She loves to bend the notes, play with the timing and keep swingin’! What a percussive rhythm machine! |
