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Karen Ferry, Violin

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Cleveland Institute of Music
Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance
Master of Music in Violin Performance

Suzuki Method Training
Books 1-10 with Kimberly Meier-Sims

Karen Lela Ferry began her violin studies at age 3 with Deborah Moench of Salt Lake City, and studied with Stephen Rose and Kimberly Meier-Sims at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) as a Violin Performance and Suzuki Pedagogy Master of Music student. As a student at CIM, she was selected to participate in the Intensive Duo Program and Advanced String Quartet Program and performs regularly in competitive chamber masterclasses. In the spring of 2022, Karen toured with her CIM quartet, The Argo Quartet, in Florida - bringing exuberant music to audiences young and old. Karen was recently awarded the Dr. Bennett Levine Memorial Award in Chamber Music and was a 2022 semi-finalist in the Glass City Chamber Music Competition with The Argo Quartet. She also served as Student Body President, Board of Trustees member, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) committee leader at CIM.

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Karen performs and gigs regularly with the New Texas Sinfonia, Mansfield Symphony Orchestra, Firelands Symphony Orchestra, and the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra. Karen has recently attended the National Orchestral Institute as concertmaster and principal second violinist, the Smithsonian String Quartet Seminar, “Vivace!” International Music Festival and the Online Summer String Academy (OSSI), ENCORE Chamber Music Festival twice, and the Indiana Summer String Academy. 

Prior to her undergraduate studies at CIM with Jan Sloman and Stephen Rose, Karen studied for four years with Ralph Matson, former concertmaster of the Utah Symphony, and ten years at the Gifted Music School Conservatory. As a teen, she attended ENCORE Chamber Music Festival twice, and the Indiana University Summer String Academy. Karen grew up participating annually in the Intermountain Suzuki String Institute, where her appreciation for

the Suzuki Method began. Karen was also a six-year member of the Rocky Mountain Strings, a group of 45 young violinists from the Wasatch front with whom she concertized in Belgium and France.

Karen is devoted to using music to better the community and with the Gifted Music School, she helped raise $40,000 for the Children’s Justice Center by performing in its Sounds for Hope benefit concert, and most recently raised $15,000 by heading the 2022 Music For Food Benefit Concert to help fight hunger in the Greater Cleveland Area.

Karen is an passionate private violin teacher and loves helping her students discover the joy and satisfaction that music-making brings. Karen is trained through the Suzuki Association of the Americas in all 10 Suzuki Books with practicum and Every Child Can with Kimberly Meier-Sims.

In addition to music, Karen enjoys running, singing, tap dancing, doing yoga, visiting her home in Corinne, Utah where her family owns and operates a farm and cattle ranch, and speaking Italian in which she became fluent as she served a 1.5-year mission trip in Milan, Italy. Karen plays a 1926 Italian violin made by Jago Peternella.

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