Karen Sarkisian is a multi-instrumentalist from Boston, MA. She began playing six string guitar at age six. By her early 20’s she was an established country blues fingerstyle guitarist playing local Boston area clubs and busking on the streets of Cambridge, MA.

​

Karen attended Berklee College of Music in 1992 where she studied guitar and songwriting. She graduated in 1995 Magna Cum Laude with a Berklee Songwriting Contest Award for her original song “Anything”. Karen continued to perform in and around the Boston area as a songwriter, country blues guitarist, and jazz guitarist. In 1998 she was praised by her first guitar hero Jorma Kaukonen for her country blues guitar EP "Country Blues Guitar".

 

Karen began working as a bassist in 2005 with various Americana bands in Boston. It was in one of these bands that she became familiar with the pedal steel guitar. Karen believes that the pedal steel guitar is the instrument she was born to play.

​

Karen bought a vintage 1970’s Emmons E9 single neck guitar and began immersing herself in all things steel guitar. She has played with many popular country artitsts and singersongwriters in the Boston area and is frequently called for session work and steel guitar instruction. She has been featured at the Pedal Steel Guitar Association (PSGA) annual steel guitar show in Norwalk CT and the Rhode Island Steel Guitar Association (RISGA) steel guitar show in Coventry R.I. She is a also a member of the Texas Steel Guitar Association (TSGA)

​