Karen and Robyn Driedger Klassen
Vancouver Academy of Music

Biography

Karen Lee-Morlang is particularly well-known in the community for her collaborative skills at the piano and for championing art music for new audiences. Local and international recognition have enabled her to travel to Europe, Asia and within North America to study with renowned artists. Karen earned her second degree at the University of British Columbia, specializing in the collaborative arts under the mentorship of Rena Sharon and Leslie Uyeda at UBC's School of Music, where she earned her Bachelor's Degree in Music in 1998. In the summer of 1999, Karen performed at 'Songfest' in California, studying German lied and English art song with Graham Johnson. As the 2001 winner of the Johann Strauss Foundation Award with her long-time colleague, soprano Robyn Driedger-Klassen, Karen travelled to Baden bei Wien, Austria for her studies at the Franz-Schubert-Institut with Elly Ameling, Rudolph Jansen, Helmut Deutsch, Martin Isepp, Wolfgang Holzmair, Max Deen Larsen and many other exciting artists. She returned with Robyn by special invitation to study at the Academie Villecroze in southern France for further studies with Elly Ameling and Rudolph Jansen in September 2002. In 2001, Karen was one of the Canadian representatives with her counter-tenor, David Dong Qyu Lee, in the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition in London, England. Since then, Karen has continued to gain recognition for her work, including award nominations for excellence in her work, recruitments by opera companies, radio and other music organizations, and last May was invited by the New York Metropolitan Opera National Council to audition for the Lindemann Young Artists' Program in New York.

With her passion for reaching new audiences, Karen often organizes chamber music and art song recitals around the Lower Mainland. She has formerly directed various recital series at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the UBC Main Library and the University Women's Club; and recently completed a three-year project with the UBC Learning Exchange in the Downtown Eastside coordinating the Music Appreciation 101 course. From 1999 to 2005, Karen also managed The Song Circle with founding artistic director Rena Sharon, a dynamic group of young pianists and singers that is inspired in the exploration of creative song presentation and has had many successful performances including projects for CBC Radio and Festival Vancouver. Distinguished guest performers with The Song Circle have included Benjamin Butterfield, Wendy Nielsen, Michael Colvin, Scott St. John, Alain Coulombe, Jean Stilwell, Bill Richardson, Tyler Duncan, Erika Switzer and Robyn Driedger-Klassen. Karen can be regularly heard in broadcasts of her recitals with upcoming young musicians on CBC Radio's Westcoast Performance.

With the support of the UBC Learning Exchange, Karen also coordinates the “New Arts Audience” series with the Vancouver Public Library and the “Night Before the Opera” events with the Vancouver Opera. Karen taught as a Sessional Lecturer for the Collaborative Piano Division at the UBC School of Music (2002 - 2005), where she continues to mentor, promote and coach talented students and ensembles in her various outreach music series. In addition to her energetic performing and directing career, Karen maintains a private studio of gifted young pianists. In her rare spare moments, she loves to sew and design evening gowns, devour books, mountain bike, rock climb, eat sushi, sing with the seven-woman-a capella ensemble the No Shit Shirleys and cavort with her talented feline trio: Graymalkin, Arafel and Ozymandias.