Karen TenBrink

Karen is thrilled to be re-joining the Ann Arbor Youth Chorale family! She spent seven years as vocal coach, pianist and guest conductor with the Ann Arbor Youth Chorale while her two children sang in both the Descant and Concert Choirs, participated in cabarets and choir tours.

She has been bringing people together through song for over 30 years as a conductor in four different countries. She holds Bachelor and Master degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the University of Michigan, where she studied piano, voice, conducting and music education. She taught choir classes at middle and high schools in Michigan and has directed choirs in Germany, the United States, Japan and Thailand. In Japan, she started her own children’s choir, programming music from around the world, and in Thailand she was the chorus master for Opera Siam in Bangkok.

Karen has been the director of the Ann Arbor Civic Chorus since 2014, which has grown from 65 to 180 singers during her tenure, and has collaborated with such groups as the University of Michigan Sahānā Indian Classical Music and Dance group, Out Loud Chorus, Dexter Community Orchestra, Ann Arbor Civic Band and Ann Arbor Concert Band. She is also the newly appointed director for the University of Michigan Voices Valiant choir, directs the in-house choir at Glacier Hills Senior Independent Living, and just started a new choir for adult treble voices, the Ann Arbor SoprAltos.

In addition to leading choirs, Karen is a voice teacher for middle and high school students in Ann Arbor and Jackson, whose singers regularly receive top scores at State Solo & Ensemble Festival, participate in State and All-State Honors Choirs and have gone on to study music in college. She loves working with young singers and has been teaching at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp as a voice teacher and conductor since 2017.

Outside of teaching and conducting, Karen performs regularly with the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Ann Arbor and serves on the Michigan board for the American Choral Conductors Association as the Repertoire and Resources representative for Community Choirs and Ethnic/Multicultural Perspectives . Building community and opening minds through song is central to everything Karen does; she strongly believes everyone should have the opportunity to let their voice be heard, while continuously growing as an artist and musician.