Karen Melamed Smith, pianist, is the Program Director at the Community School of Music & Arts (CSMA) in Ithaca, NY and Music Director of the Hector Presbyterian Church. She has over 20 years teaching experience, including piano, pre-school music and movement, various performance and appreciation classes, and classroom arts-in-education programs. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance from the University of Southern California (USC) and a Masters in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Philosophy and the Arts from The New School for Social Research (NYC), as well as NYS provisional certification in elementary education. Karen is a member of the piano trio, “Three” (with violinist, William Hurley and cellist, Elisa Evett) and juggles practicing Qigong and studying Indian and Greek philosophy in her spare time.