Karen Dreyfus is world-renowned violist

Violist

-Notable violists:A* Julia Rebekka Adler * Sir Hugh Allen , conductor* Kris Allen * Johann Andreas Amon * Paul Angerer , composer* Steven Ansell * Atar Arad * Cecil Aronowitz...

 who currently teaches at the Manhattan School of Music

Manhattan School of Music

The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...

. Ms. Dreyfus has distinguished herself as a recipient of many prizes, including the Naumburg Viola Competition

Walter W. Naumburg Foundation

The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation sponsors competitions and provides awards for young classical musicians in North America. It was founded in 1925 by Walter Wehle Naumburg, a wealthy amateur cellist and son of noted New York music patron and philanthropist Elkan Naumburg. Elkan Naumburg, owner of...

 (1982), the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition

Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition

The Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition is an international music competition for viola players established in 1980 to honor the memory of the English viola virtuoso Lionel Tertis. This triennial event is held at the Erin Arts Centre, Port Erin, Isle of Man...

 (1980), the Washington International Competition (1979), and the Hudson Valley Competition (1978). Ms. Dreyfus has concertized extensively in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and South America.

Some of her musical collaborations have been with Musicians From Marlboro, New York Philomusica, Theater Chamber Players of the Kennedy Center, the New York Philharmonic, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. She has performed in recital with Yehudi Menuhin

Yehudi Menuhin

Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE was a Russian Jewish American violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Russian Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985...

 at Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

 and has also collaborated with such artists as Rudolf Serkin

Rudolf Serkin

Rudolf Serkin , was a Bohemian-born pianist.-Life and early career:Serkin was born in Eger, Bohemia, Austro-Hungarian Empire to a Russian-Jewish family....

; Alexander Schneider

Alexander Schneider

Alexander Schneider was a violinist, conductor, and educator. Born in Vilna, Lithuania, he later moved to the United States as a member of the Budapest Quartet.- Biography :...

; Leon Fleisher

Leon Fleisher

Leon Fleisher is an American pianist and conductor.-Early life and studies:Fleisher was born in San Francisco, where he started studying the piano at age four...

; Chick Corea; and her husband, Glenn Dicterow

Glenn Dicterow

Glenn Dicterow , is an American violinist and is currently concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.Mr. Dicterow's musical gifts became apparent when, at age 11, he made his solo debut with the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra...

.

Early life

Born into a family of musicians, she began studying the violin with her father, a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and later decided to pursue a career on the viola under the tutelage of Leonard Mogill. Other teachers have included Heidi Castleman and Martha Katz. A 1979 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music

Curtis Institute of Music

The Curtis Institute of Music is a conservatory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that offers courses of study leading to a performance Diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in Opera, and Professional Studies Certificate in Opera. According to statistics compiled by U.S...

, where she studied with Michael Tree

Michael Tree

Michael Tree is an American violist, born in Newark, New Jersey.-Biography:Michael Tree's principal studies were with Efrem Zimbalist on violin and viola at the Curtis Institute of Music...

 and Karen Tuttle

Karen Tuttle

Karen Tuttle was an American viola teacher, famous for her "coordination" technique, which emphasizes being comfortable while playing the instrument. She was originally a violinist who chose to become a violist when she wanted to study with William Primrose, whose technique and ease in playing...

, Ms. Dreyfus moved to the New York area, where she performs solo concerts and chamber music recitals and teaches viola, orchestral excerpts, and chamber music.

Career

Ms. Dreyfus has also served on the faculties of the Third Street Music School Settlement, SUNY Purchase, and Queens College. In 2001 she began teaching a class in orchestral repertoire at Juilliard. Ms. Dreyfus is a co-founding member of the Lyric Piano Quartet, which is quartet in residence at Queens College. She has had many pieces written for her and has premiered pieces by composers such as Ezra Laderman, Elizabeth Brown, and William Thomas McKinley, among others.

CDs

Karen Dreyfus has received a National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalists Award and has performed extensively throughout the United States. She has also recorded many CDs. Her premiere recording with Bridge Records, entitled Romanze, was received with much critical acclaim. American Record Guide cites Ms. Dreyfus as “a terrific player with impeccable technique and intonation, beautiful tone, and real musicianship. Her playing is highly expressive and responsive to the many moods elicited by this varied program.”

Poland

In 1995 Karen Dreyfus was invited to Poland to record the William Walton Viola Concerto with the Warsaw Philharmonic. It has been released by MMC Recordings. She recorded works for viola and orchestra of eight American composers with the Silesian Philharmonic. In 1997, Ms. Dreyfus recorded and premiered three more solo works with the Czech Radio Symphony of Prague. These CDs have all been released on the MMC label. The latest CD for MMC has been the a recording of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, along with a piece written for Ms. Dreyfus and Glenn Dicterow, released in 2002, entitled The Music of Mozart and McKinley. Dreyfus is also featured on the Navona Records

Navona Records

Navona Records is an American independent record label based in the Seacoast region of New Hampshire owned by PARMA Recordings. Navona's sister companies via PARMA include the Ravello, Big Round, MMC, and Capstone Records label imprints, and the label is distributed by Naxos...

 label.

Lyric Piano Quartet

Most recently, Karen Dreyfus’s chamber ensemble, the Lyric Piano Quartet, has released a recording of piano quartet works of Strauss and Turina for Black Box Records. It has been given the honor of being nominated as “Editor's Choice” by Gramophone magazine. BBC Magazine said the Lyric Piano Quartet “marry the old-fashioned virtues of portamento and warm vibrato to a quicksilver intelligence.”

Discography

With Chick Corea

Chick Corea

Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...

 and Gary Burton

Gary Burton

Gary Burton is an American jazz vibraphonist.A true original on the vibraphone, Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the usual two-mallets. This approach caused Burton to be heralded as an innovator and his sound and technique are widely imitated...

• Lyric Suite for Sextet
  Lyric Suite for Sextet
  Lyric Suite for Sextet is an album by vibraphonist Gary Burton and pianist Chick Corea with a string quartet recorded in 1982 and released on the ECM label...
  
  (ECM, 1982)