Karen A. Allred received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in May 2007, and the Master of Music degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where her teachers were Joseph DiPiazza and Michael Zenge. Further studies include work with Edna Golandsky in New York City. She is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music through MTNA (www.MTNA.org).

Allred was awarded an Emerging Artist Grant from the City of Raleigh Arts Commission in 1991-1992 in the area of piano performance. In 1991 she was a semi-finalist in the National Beethoven Piano Sonata Competition as well as an alternate in 1993. Performances in master classes have included work with Ruth Laredo, Paul Schenley, Menahem Pressler, Clifton Matthews, John Perry, Walter Hautzig, and most recently, John O’Conor.

Dr. Allred served on the faculty of Meredith College for 22 years through August 2011. She currently maintains a private studio in Chapel Hill where she enjoys teaching students of all ages. Her students have received awards at state, regional, and international levels.

Allred is an active festival and master class clinician, adjudicator, and recitalist. She has been a clinician for the Wilmington Piano Teachers Association, the Charlotte Piano Teachers Forum, the Raleigh Piano Teachers Association, and the High-Point Piano Teachers Association. She presented a session on Sergei Lyapunov’s Preludes, Op. 6, at the UNC-G Focus on Piano Literature in the summer of 2006. Areas of current research and interest include the solo piano works of Sergei Lyapunov, Russian piano literature, and the Russian language.

Dr. Allred has served on the Board of Directors of the Raleigh Chamber Music Guild and is on the Advisory Board of the Mallarmé Youth Chamber Orchestra. She also teaches and coaches for S.C.O.R.E., a summer music workshop for children in Chapel Hill, NC.

She has collaborated with members of the North Carolina Symphony as well as having appeared as a solo recitalist, soloist with orchestra, and chamber musician in Colorado, South Carolina, New York, New Mexico, North Dakota, Washington, D.C., and North Carolina. Critics have described her playing as “stunning,” having a “lovingly produced sound that circled and enveloped the listeners” and presenting a “confident mastery” (CVNC). She performed an all-Chopin recital in Bougival, France, just outside of Paris in the spring of 2008 at the Ivan Tourgueniev Museum.

She resides on a small farm with her husband, three horses, four cats, and two dogs. She and her husband Jack Griffith recently formed Stargazer Farm Sporthorses, where they breed Dressage horses.

Degrees Held: B.M., Meredith College; M.M., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; D.M.A., University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Courses Taught at Meredith College: Piano, Baroque Music History, Seminar in Music Literature: Beethoven. Her studio includes college piano majors as well as non-majors, pre-college students (beginning—advanced), advanced adults, and music theory for pre-college students.

Contact: Karen Allred, DMA, NCTM karenallredpiano@gmail.com (919) 619-3134
Conveniently located 5 minutes from Meadowmont as well as Streets of Southpoint.