Karen Birch Blundell is an active freelancer who enjoys performing on both oboe and English horn. She is the English horn player for the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic and is a member of Double Entendre Music Ensemble. Each summer, she travels to Greensboro, NC to serve as Associate Principal Oboe/English horn of the prestigious Eastern Music Festival. While at EMF, she performed Miguel De Aquila’s English horn concerto Broken Rondo as a faculty soloist with the Young Artists orchestra.

Karen performs throughout the Northeast with ensembles including Amor Artis, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, New Camerata Opera and the Springfield Symphony Orchestra.

Prior to her time in NY, Karen was Second Oboe/English horn with the Sarasota Orchestra. She regularly guested with neighboring orchestras including the Florida Orchestra and the Naples Philharmonic. She travelled to St. Croix as a featured artist for the Whim Candlelight Concert Series and spent three summers as Principal Oboe with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería in Mexico City. She has been a guest musician with the American Symphony, The Riverside Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Houston Ballet Orchestra and the Cincinnati Symphony Pops where she was honored to don one of their famous red jackets.

Beyond the Classical realm, Karen has toured the US with the New Sousa Band and been a back up musician for mega stars including Bernadette Peters, Idina Menzel, Mannheim Steamroller and The Who.

Karen holds a Bachelor of Music from Oberlin Conservatory, a Master of Music from the Hartt School of Music and completed a fellowship at the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas. Her teachers include James Caldwell, Alex Klein, Humbert Lucarelli and Robert Atherholt.