About me
Karen Kyriakou is renowned for her ever-innovative approach to music education. She is in demand as a presenter and workshop facilitator with many of Australia’s leading arts organisations and community music organisations including the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Musica Viva Australia, the Australian National Academy of Music, The Melbourne Recital Centre and the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. Her music has been published by the Australian Music Examination Board (AMEB) in the current violin syllabus as well as through her company In a Piece Publishing.
Music and the Deaf Community
Karen is a long-time Artist in Residence with Musica Viva Australia working in schools for children with diverse needs. She has been teaching in a school for deaf children for 14 years using both English and Auslan.
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra engaged Karen in 2011 to lead an Auslan choir (Australian Sign Language) to Beethoven's 9th Symphony as part of their Beethoven Festival. In 2012 Karen was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to travel to the UK to investigate delivering authentic musical experiences for Deaf children. Karen was also involved in mentoring the Auslan Choir of the Find Your Voice Collective, an all-inclusive choir based in Warrnambool.
The Sound Vibrations workshop series is run at the Melbourne Recital Centre and provides students deaf students an opportunity to engage in music-making workshops along side students from the Australian National Academy of Music.
Projects & Teaching
Karen’s professional learning sessions for teachers develop approaches of inclusivity in the different settings faced by classroom and instrumental music teachers; the music classroom, ensembles, group and private lessons.
As the creator and presenter of the ‘Jams for Juniors’ program run by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Karen engages young children and their families as they play along with the musicians of the orchestra, exploring symphonic works together. ‘Jams for Juniors’ can be access both live and online.
In 2018, Karen released her first book Strings Together, containing 20 inclusive and adaptable aural lessons for the string classroom or ensemble. Band Together (for brass, woodwind and percussion) followed shortly after.
Karen was awarded into the aMuse (Association of Music Educators) Hall of Fame in 2022 for her services to inclusive music education.
A staunch advocate of lifelong learning, Karen teaches from early learning to tertiary levels and presents at industry conferences, championing creative music making and inclusive music education.
