About
The studio of Karen's Violins is physically located in Nokomis Florida, just off of US41 near the Nokomis Fire Department.
I am involved in many local musical organizations including The Venice Symphony, The North Port Symphony (Concertmaster), The Charlotte Symphony, Palm Strings Quartet, and Romanza Strings. I play often for weddings, parties, religious services, and concerts in many different ensembles and combination of players - from solo violin, duet with cello, trio with flute & cello, to full orchestra. I will travel most anywhere to play but travel costs start to price me out of weddings it seems north of Tampa and south of Ft. Myers.
I come from a family of musicians and have received most of my training and experience through them, private instruction, the Sarasota Orchestra and its youth symphony. I began playing violin at the age of seven. When I moved to Florida in the 5th grade, I was placed in the high school orchestra because I already had three years of experience. I received several years of private instruction from Judith Merrill who was Sarasota Orchestra's principal 2nd violin at the time. Through high school I was the concertmaster of Venice High School's orchestra, the assistant concertmaster of Sarasota's Youth Symphony (Florida West Coast Symphony Youth Orchestra at the time), played violin in The Venice Symphony and viola in the Florida West Coast Symphony (now known as the Sarasota Orchestra). I received private instruction on violin and piano and practiced at least one hour a day on each. Between the four orchestras' rehearsals and performances, private lessons and practice, I played violin or viola every minute outside of eat, sleep, math and social studies... Almost like I do now except instead of math and social studies, I'm running my own business. :-)
I did spend some time studying at Florida State University in Tallahassee and 20 years working an office job researching the financial markets before settling into my dream career...
It just doesn't get any better than this!!
