Karen Keating, Artistic Director, joined ACW in her current position in the fall of 2020 and was a Professor of Music at Shenandoah Conservatory for over 30 years. She served as Director of Shenandoah Chorus and Cantus Singers, and Music Director/Conductor for the innovative Opera Up Close series and was a teacher of conducting and musical theatre accompaniment.

Karen earned a Bachelor of Music degree from James Madison University and has diplomas in organ performance and choral conducting from the University of Salzburg “Mozarteum.” She has a Doctoral degree in performance from Shenandoah University and studied with Grammy award-winner Robert Shafer. While in Austria, Karen studied with several renowned conductors including Herbert von Karajan, Kurt Prestel, Walter Hagen-Groll and Nicholas Harnoncourt. She served as the director of the Robert Schollum Chor Hallein, and as the accompanist and assistant director of the Salzburger Liedertafel.

Throughout her career, Karen has worked with many distinguished artists: singers Julianne Baird, Werner Hollweg, Christopher Merritt and Barbara Bonney; organist Elisabeth Bigenzahn-Ullmann; conductors Vaclav Neumann, Hans Graf and Leopold Hager; and opera directors Lauren Flanigan, Edwin Cahill, Nic Muni, Michael Ehrman, and Neil Shicoff. Her choirs have performed for Alice Parker, Chanticleer, Anonymous 4 and at ACDA regional conventions. She travelled with her choir to Tokyo, Japan, to record Melillo’s piece with the Central Band of the Japan National Air Self Defense Force. Her two-piano arrangement of Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms was performed by the choir of Trinity Wall Street under the baton of Julian Wachner and by Da Camera with Houston Chamber Choir under the direction of Robert Simpson. 

Karen has been a music director and conductor for Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre since 1995 and is also in demand as a clinician and adjudicator for choral festivals throughout Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Karen has acted as interim director of The Loudoun Chorale (fall 2015) and The Arts Chorale of Winchester (fall 2016).