Karen hails from the far North of Scotland, where she grew up learning amongst some well-known musicians such as Addie Harper (of The Wick Scottish Dance Band), Bobby Coghill and Ian Sinclair who led the folk group, Mirk. Karen has a strong, rhythmic style of fiddle playing, influenced by her highland dance training. With the bagpipes traditionally accompanying highland dancing, Karen was exposed to a strong repertoire of strathspeys, jigs and reels, long before she started learning the fiddle at the age of 13. The twinning of the Highlands of Scotland with Cape Breton Island, Canada, in 1986 enabled Karen to travel to Cape Breton performing on a tour of the island giving her exposure to some of the great players and groups such as the Barra MacNeils, and The Rankin family. This trip marked a turning point for Karen - A number of scholarships to attend The Valley of the Moon fiddle camp in California, USA followed. It was there, Karen was introduced to the phenomenal playing and teaching of; Alasdair Fraser, Buddy MacMaster, Martin Hayes (Ireland) and Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh (Altan). A 1997 scholarship from The Cross Trust, enabled Karen to return to Canada to carry out the research for her degree dissertation. Other opportunities have included, playing for former president of the USA, Bill Clinton, at Carnegie’s Skibo Castle in Scotland and teaching at Norway's mid-winter dance festival, Trondheim. Teaching opportunities alongside Alasdair Fraser, at Celtic Connections festival, Glasgow and Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Isle of Skye, as well as performances and workshops at The North Atlantic Fiddle Convention; 2001, 2006 & 2018 have been particular career highlights. Karen has composed many tunes and has published a book with 51 of her compositions. Many of these are featured on CD’s that she has available. One of her more recent compositions “Angel Boy” was used to help fundraise for a children’s hospital in Scotland. The music and video features 38 musicians from the UK, Sweden, Canada and the US. Lately, Karen has had some competition success at fiddle & stepdance competitions in Ontario, Canada as well as winning the New England, Scottish Regional Open Fiddle competition 2024, held at New Hampshire Highland Games, USA. As well as performing alongside Anna Ludlow & Terri-Lyn Mahusky in the all female fiddle band, Women of Fiddle in Ontario, Canada, Karen is preparing to teach & perform at North America’s biggest highland games outside of Scotland, to be held on 1 & 2 August in Glengarry, Ontario, following on from such greats as Buddy & Natalie MacMaster, Jerry Holland & Troy MacGillivray, to name a few. The charity, SC&T (Scottish Culture & Traditions), based in Aberdeen, holds a very dear place in Karen’s heart. Karen was one of the original instructors of the charity when it was established in 1997, returning in later years to teach face to face lessons in fiddle as well as online classes during winter. In recent months, Karen has been collaborating with Scottish accordionist, Alastair MacDonald. The duo have been expanding their repertoire of Scottish dance music and enjoyed playing for a number of charitable events in the Ottawa Valley and for Scottish Country Dance groups, in Ottawa, The Valley and as far west as Calgary in Alberta. Alongside friends John Mitchell (piano) and fellow Scot, Ian Clark (guitar), the 4 have established their band, Atlantic Firth, culminating in the release of their first Scottish Country Dance Album, ‘Ready, and…’. For a number of years, Karen has had a strong interest in composing. She enjoys writing new music inspired by traditional Scottish tunes, for Scottish stepdance, highland dance choreography and for Scottish country dancing.