As a performer, Karen has been the principal clarinetist of the Santa Cruz Symphony since 1990 and principal & bass clarinetist in West Edge Opera since 2015. She performs on all the clarinets including Bb, A, Eb and Bass and on soprano, alto, and tenor saxophones. Karen also enjoys performing on her basset horn, which was specially made for Rosario Mazzeo. She has performed in many orchestras including the San Francisco Ballet and Opera, San Jose Symphony, Symphony Silicon Valley, and now Symphony San Jose, San Jose Ballet, Carmel Bach Festival, Midsummer Mozart, Heidelberg Germany Festival, West Bay Opera, Monterey Symphony, Marin Symphony, etc. She has performed under the batons of many great conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas, Leonard Bernstein, Eric Leindsdorf, Herbert Bloomstedt and recently Leonard Slatkin.
Karen performed many years in the Violeto Trio and arranged music for the unique combination of VIOLin-clarinET-cellO and has also been honored to perform as soloist with many groups including the Rochester Philharmonic, Santa Cruz Symphony, Master Sinfonia, Palo Alto Symphony, Redwood Symphony, and in Europe with the Daniel String Quartet.
As teacher, Karen has enjoyed educating students on all the clarinets and saxophones privately since 1985. Some of her students have gone on to play in symphonies and/or teach in universities. One year, despite the seemingly impossible odds, the only two clarinetists from throughout the United States to be chosen to perform as members of the National Youth Orchestra at Carnegie Hall were both from Karen’s studio. Karen has previously been on the faculty at the College of Notre Dame, Belmont, and Santa Clara University.
Karen Sremac received her Performer’s Certificate and Master’s of Music (clarinet) from the Eastman School of Music where she studied with Stanley Hasty. She was the only clarinet student accepted into the master’s program that year. She received her Bachelors of Music (clarinet) from USC, where she studied with Mitchell Lurie. She began her undergraduate studies at Occidental College. Karen also studied clarinet extensively with David Breeden, Don Carroll and David Neuman of the San Francisco Symphony and Rosario Mazzeo of the Boston Symphony.