Karen Christianson

Karen is 11 years old. She attended King's College School, Cambridge, during the autumn term of 2006 while living temporarily in Cambridge with her family from their home in Philadelphia. Karen started piano lessons at age 5 and began composing music at age 6, when she wrote a little poem about springtime and set the words to music. Karen currently studies organ with Alan Morrison and music theory and composition with Matthew Glandorf, both on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In October 2006, Karen played for the renowned French organist Olivier Latry at Notre Dame de Paris as well as Le Conservatoire de Paris. Karen also presented an organ recital at Great St. Mary's Church, Cambridge, on 2nd December 2006, and she played organ voluntaries for the King's College School Christmas service at King's College Chapel on 13th December 2006. Karen's choral composition "Psalm of Thanksgiving", scored for soprano and alto voices, was one of seventeen original compositions selected nationwide from elementary-through-university level submissions for concert performance at the 2006 national meeting of the U.S. Music Educators National Conference (MENC) in Salt Lake City, Utah. A children's choir from The Episcopal Academy sang "Psalm of Thanksgiving" at the competition winners' concert in historic Assembly Hall on Temple Square on 21st April 2006. "Psalm of Thanksgiving" will also be presented in concert at the Eastern U.S. Division meeting of the MENC in Hartford, Connecticut, on 9th March 2007. Karen is an avid footballer and while living in Cambridge she enjoyed playing on the Under-12 Girls Team of the Cambridge City Football Club. In her spare time, Karen studies modern Greek and she enjoys playing duets with her little brother Nicolas.