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Draft:Karen Iglitzin

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Karen Cecile Iglitzin (born 24 December 1957) is an American violinist, chamber music player, organizer of chamber music workshops and camps. She was the first violinist of the Philadelphia String Quartet, as well as a faculty member at Western Washington University

Biography:

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Early life

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Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her parents are Alan Iglitzin, founding violist of the Philadelphia String Quartet; and Lynne Iglitzin, former professor of political science at the University of Washington. Alan was in the Minneapolis Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra and founded the Philadelphia String Quartet.

After the PSQ moved from Philadelphia to Seattle, she began studying the violin. Her teacher was Veda Reynolds, who was the first violinist of the PSQ. Karen attended View Ridge Elementary (Garnet Kaiyala, strings); Nathan Eckstein Middle School (Charles Shelton) and attended Roosevelt High School (Ronald Zachary Taylor), in Seattle. The Roosevelt Chamber Orchestra was the first American high school string ensemble to perform as a self-directed group. The group performed at the national MENC conference to demonstrate this skill in 1974.

Education

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Iglitzin received her Bachelor of Music at Indiana University, studying with Josef Gingold. There, she discovered that their was no chamber orchestra as part of IU school of music. She founded the Indiana Chamber Players, which performed Baroque music in the self-conducted style. The ensemble ran for two years, featuring faculty soloists including Leonard Sharrow, bassoon, and Franco Gulli, violin. Iglitzin received her Masters of Music at Yale School of Music in 1982, studying with Joseph Silverstein. She did intensive chamber music studies with the Tokyo String Quartet and Raphael Hillyer, violist of the Juilliard Quartet. Her summer studies included Aspen with Shirley Givens and Dorothy Delay, Meadowmount with Ivan Galamian and at Yale in Norfolk. She spent three years at the Tanglewood Music Center where she was awarded the Josef Silverstein prize.

Career with the Philadelphia Quartet

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Ms. Iglitzin joined the quartet as first violinist 1984. The PSQ played eighty concerts each year, and did two international tours, giving concerts in major halls and doing demonstrations for young people. In 1983, they toured Brazil, Columbia and Chile. In 1985 they spent six weeks touring India. She was director of educational projects which involved outreach concerts and residencies around the Pacific Northwest. The quartet played a series at UW Meany Hall featuring eight concerts each year with numerous guest artists including Paul Hersh, viola and piano; and Gilbert Kalish, piano.

With her father, Alan Iglitzin, they founded the Olympic Music Festival "Concerts-in-the-Barn" near Quilcene, Wa. As part of the festival, she founded and directed the Chamber Music Institute, which hosted many years intensive chamber music camps for teenagers on the farm..

Career as a professor and educator

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In 1986, Ms. Iglitzin joined the faculty as head of strings at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. She taught violin, chamber music and music appreciate for non-music majors. Iglitzin founded the WWU Preparatory Music Program for area students to have a program on Saturdays. Its components were orchestra, band, choir and folk music. It also included an division for WWU music students to have experience teaching young musicians.

In 1996, after receiving tenure from WWU, she took a leave of absence in the Shandong Province in China. There, she and husband Roger Nelson served as guest music professors at Qufu Teachers University for the 1997-1998 year. Moving to Seattle, she established a non-profit organization Chamber Music Madness in 2000 to provide chamber music workshops and camps for young people from around the Puget Sound Area.

In 2010 Iglitzin departed to establish a chamber music teaching studio and camps under Karen Iglitzin Chamber Music Institute. She also has performed as a folk fiddler and plays Brazilian popular music known as 'choro'. She runs workshops for all ages.

Other work

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Ms.Iglitzin has written articles including for the American String Teacher, 'Teaching with Interpreters (in China), 1988; Chamber Music Coaching Ideas for Starting Out"; Chamber Music America, Strings Magazine and the Strad, 'Fiddling on the Yangtze", 1999.

She was named "Teacher-of-the-Year" by the Washington State division of the American String Teachers Association. (1999) Iglitzin was also chosen by Chamber Music America as a national winner of the Heidi Castleman Award for Excellence in Chamber Music Teaching (2001)

Iglitzin has been a mentor to young musicians for over forty years. She now runs a consultancy as a college preparatory advisor for students from all over the USA. This includes choosing colleges, guidance on essays and advice on scholarships. She also helps prospective music majors how to manage their application and audition process.

Her sister is Lara Iglitzin, former director of the Henry Jackson Foundation and her brother is attorney, Dmitri Iglitzin. Karen's daughter is cellist Ariana Nelson, who got her BMusic at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and her masters degree at Juilliard. Ariana is a member of the Carpe Diem String Quartet and based in Arlington, Virginia. Mother and daughter have done many chamber music workshops and adventures together.

References

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