Karen Becker, Cello

Cellist Karen Becker is an active soloist and avid chamber player, having performed throughout the United States as well as in Europe, Mexico and Puerto Rico. This is her tenth year at the Red Lodge Music Festival. She has served as faculty artist for other festivals such as the Ameropa Chamber Music Festival in Praque (Czech Republic). Becker is a former member of the Omega String Quartet and former principal cellist of both the Melkus Ensemble and the International String Orchestra. She has appeared as soloist and principal cellist with the Texas Cello Choir at national conventions as well as on “Front Row Center”, a Texas Public Television program. In 2009 she made both solo and chamber music appearances at a two-week long international cultural festival in Zacatecas, Mexico playing music of Mexican composer Manuel Ponce. She tours regularly as a soloist and chamber player and is a member of the piano trio, Trio Nuovo, with pianist Mark Clinton and violinist Anton Miller. Becker received her Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees from the University of Texas at Austin where she was a student of Phyllis Young, and the Bachelor of Music degree from Ohio University as a student of Leighton Conkling. She has served on national committees of the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) and has been on the planning committee for both the 2005 and 2010 ASTA conventions. In February 2005 she received the Citation for Leadership & Merit from ASTA. She continues to guest conduct and give clinics for high school orchestras and cellists throughout the United States, and enjoys teaching in Suzuki workshops. She currently serves as Associate Professor of Cello at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, principal cellist of the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, and director of the Lincoln Junior Youth Orchestra.