KAREN K

Karen Rives Kalafatas (kal-uh-fay-tis) is a singer, songwriter, wife, mother, sister and daughter living in North Carolina’s Piedmont.

Born in Fayetteville, NC and raised an Army brat, Karen grew up on everything from Waylon, Willie and Dolly to Ella, Emmy Lou and Earth Wind & Fire. Her earliest memory of performing is as a 3-year-old singing along to Burl Ives' "Pearly Shells" with a tennis racket guitar, jump rope mic, and her big sister. Crowds were riveted. Until bath time. 

As a teen, she'd hole up in her bedroom listening to Amy Grant on repeat. Music remains her companion and her church.

Karen began studying voice from an early age, and was a musical theater actress in NYC straight out of college. She lights up on stage as much as she does for great music, great lyrics, and human connection. She's happiest when those things conspire. 

Karen is a longtime advocate, activist and singer/songwriter/performer in the kids and family music space with her tot-rock band Karen K & the Jitterbugs. She's won multiple family music and songwriting awards for her Pixar-style, clever and catchy tunes. She's performed at top theaters, venues and festivals around the country. Her music has been called a “must see act” by the Boston Globe, and “what Taylor Swift would sound like if she had a second grader who wanted to hang with Mom,” by HuffPost Parents. Her daughter's reaction to her mom being compared to Taylor Swift is one of many things that keeps Karen humble.  

A fierce advocate for building spaces of belonging for children, she was the recipient of a Berklee Urban Service Award for her work in Boston as creator of Kids Really Rock, the largest free family music festival in the country (10,000 people annually). She is also Co-Founder of Family Music Forward (FMF), which successfully partnered with the Recording Academy to create more equitable GRAMMY Award voting practices. FMF's work was featured in Billboard Magazine, Rolling Stone and more. 

Karen's music has been recommended by The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Broadway World, PBS, CBS, New York Magazine and many others. Her songs have been streamed and played on radio stations around the world including  SiriusXM. 

With hundreds of tunes collecting dust in her piano bench and space on her computer, Karen is currently working on her first full-length album for grown ups. The collection fuses country, rock, blues and folk, weaving a story of her human and artistic evolution and, ultimately, a return to her southern roots. 

Karen lives in a little house with too many guitars in Chapel Hill, NC with her husband, daughter and rescue pup. She loves them best of all. Just like her mom, she's never met a stranger. Drop her a line to say hello.