Karen Murphy, DMA, NCTM

Piano

Starting piano at the age of four with her father as her first teacher, she holds solo and collaborative performance degrees from Indiana University, Arizona State University, and the University of Minnesota. Her secondary area of study while at the University of Minnesota was musicology, specifically women and music during the Renaissance period as revealed through art. Her primary piano teachers include Eugenia Nicks-O’Reilly, Alfonso Montecino, Janice Meyer-Thompson, Ekhart Sellheim, Timothy Lovelace and Margo Garrett. She is dedicated to the training and education of solo and collaborative pianists of all ages. She welcomes beginners, advanced and adult students into her studio.

Dr. Murphy's pre-college private piano students in Arizona and Mississippi have won awards at the local and state levels. She has served as an adjudicator for piano events in the southwestern and southeastern regions. In addition, she has served churches across the United States as organist, choir and handbell director and holds the Colleague degree with the American Guild of Organists. Currently, she is the organist at Desert Foothills Lutheran Church in North Scottsdale.

In addition to the Music Teachers National Association where she holds Permanent Certification, she is a member of the American Guild of Organists, Sigma Alpha Iota International Fraternity of Music and the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. When not engaged in musical activities she enjoys time hiking, gardening and spoiling her four grandchildren, as well as her cockapoo, Fanny.