Album Notes

Karen Foster began performing professionally in 1969 as a singer at Six Flags Over Texas. At that time, she also directed a high school choir and taught music theory.
She lived in Florence, Italy for 6 months, where she was choir director at the American Church. She returned to Texas for graduate work, then taught junior high choir for 5 years. After singing in a dance band for several years, she moved to Los Angeles, where she performed regularly at area clubs and was a guest performer at the Masquers' Club.

Next came Aspen, Colorado, where Karen performed as Fraulein Kost in a dinner theater production of Cabaret and taught private voice lessons. She then moved to Athens, Ohio, where she sang and played piano in nightclubs.

Karen has taught voice privately and at Texas Woman's University since 1988 and has been director/pianist of a Dallas-based senior citizens' entertainment troupe, the Reflection Singers, for 14 years. She also plays and sings with a Dixieland band.

At TWU, Karen has had roles in Steel Magnolias, Nunsense, and Six Women with Brain Death, for which she won an ACTF award for vocal direction. She has been active in Denton musical theater as music director (A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, for which she won a Josh award), vocal coach (Camelot, Little Shop of Horrors, The Fantasticks, Hello Dolly, and Mame), and as music director/vocal coach/pianist (two productions of Nunsense).

Karen sings at many Denton events (Arts and Jazz Fest, HOPE benefit, Starrise, Music on the Square). She performs in area retirement communities and also plays and sings for weddings, receptions, parties and banquets.

In May '99 Karen released her first CD, "Pennies From Heaven", a collection of pop standards from the 1930s and '40s. Her record label, Wishing Well Records, also released "Merry Christmas From Karen" and "Blue Skies", which covers more pop standards with a jazzier edge than her first CD. Karen's latest album, "Let's Fall In Love", features big band arrangements and was released in November of 2003.

Karen received her Bachelor and Master of Music Education degrees from the University of North Texas, and has also studied at TWU. Her voice teacher, Joan Wall of TWU, is her mentor and inspiration.