Karen Sinclair

First Violin

joined The Phoenix Symphony in 2008

Violinist Karen Sinclair leads an enriching musical life as an active performer. A native of West

Chester, Pennsylvania, she holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music, Royal Academy of

Music in London, and Rice University. In 2008, Karen joined The Phoenix Symphony’s First

Violin section. She spends the summer months as a member of the Grant Park Orchestra in

Chicago, where she has been a First Violinist since 2007. An avid chamber musician, Karen is

the co-artistic administrator of Urban Nocturnes, a Phoenix-based ensemble made up of six of

the area’s finest musicians.

Karen made her solo debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra when she was eleven years old and

subsequently returned to perform as a soloist with the same orchestra on two other occasions.

Her major solo awards include top prizes at the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition in

Switzerland and the International Competition of Padua, Italy, where she performed as soloist

with orchestra in the final round. As an orchestral musician, Karen’s has performed as a

substitute with the Philadelphia Orchestra, The Philharmonia Orchestra (London), Houston

Symphony, and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Formerly Associate Concertmaster of the

Canton Symphony in Ohio, she was featured several times as soloist with the orchestra during

her tenure there. During the 2017/18 season, she appeared as a soloist with The Phoenix

Symphony conducted by music director Tito Munoz on the orchestra’s Classics Series,

performing Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante. Karen’s major teachers have included Jascha

Brodsky, Yumi Ninomiya Scott, Gyorgy Pauk, Kathleen Winkler and William Preucil. She plays a

late 17th century violin made by Giuseppe ‘filius Andreae’ Guarneri — a rare example of his

early work.