July 25. 2020 - Karen Elaine (Viola)
"I have a Karen Elaine story for you," mentor Kate said during our first interview. "My sister and I were visiting the 'Star Trek' scoring session when we were in high school, and Karen invited us to play along on the studio floor."
I met Karen back during the Dream concert in 2013, and she had remained on my list of people I wanted to bring in to mentor.
"Don't look her in the eyes," I was told by the contractor.
But Karen was perfectly nice to me.
I was thrilled when Karen said yes. She requested hard copies of the kids' scores in advance, and I drove them down to Torrance late at night and left a large envelope at her door in her condo complex, crossing my fingers that no one would steal them.
Karen was scheduled to come on the session at 11:00. At 9:45, I got a notification that she had joined the Zoom. When I clicked on, she was practicing the viola. We had a friendly reunion.
I had a music theory lesson ready to go, but we scrapped it and launched in with Karen. She had a mile-high stack of film and tv scores she had played on, each one progressively impressing the students more and more.
Karen would frequently say things like, "I can't tell you exactly what I'm recording this weekend, but it's a super hero movie, for a studio that starts with M, and the movie begins with an S."
As Karen mentored and played her arrangements and recordings, the viola became less of that middle filler string instrument to everyone. She loved the low and high ends of her instrument, and all the composers and mentors immediately began to avoid the "muddy middle".
Karen loved working with the kids on their music, and the admiration was mutual. The joke became that you could tell an Inception composer because his or her piece would feature an intense viola solo, frequently forgetting the other strings.
We learned Karen was an acro-yoga and certified dive instructor and about her time with the San Diego Symphony. There really is no one in the business who doesn't know or respect Karen Elaine.
I had budgeted out two hours of pay. She went three-and-a-half. I found it in the account. We connected on a call after class, and we agreed to meet for dinner somewhere.
Karen, Kate, Amy, and I decided to brave COVID and go to Geoffrey's in Malibu, sitting outside, of course. In the middle of the pandemic, it was fun just to be out. It was here that we listened to Karen regale us with lots of stories, and she offered to give master classes. I had to be honest in that I would have to work to find the money, but Karen instead said, "No, Akira, I'm going to volunteer."
WHAT?
Karen started joining us every Saturday. We had also begun shuffling private mentoring students with all the Leadership team, and Karen rotated in. At this point, remember, everyone on staff was volunteering for everything.
Karen loved the program and started calling all her friends to mentor. In her tenure she introduced us to Brad Dutz, MB Gordy, Lettrice Lawrence, DW Jacobs, Ross deRoche, Aeralie Brighton, Wayne Bergeron, Ric Becker, Adrienne Albert, Carl Verheyen, and Maria Newman. Heavy, heavy hitters in the music industry.
To this day, I feel that I have no business being in business with these folks. (Again, leadership strategy & competent seat at the table.) But it was COVID, and no musician was working, and thus available.
It's impossible to fit everything in I need to say about Karen. She was supportive, amazing, held us to a higher standard, brought out excellence in everyone, and networked for us, plus.... she was a great friend during the pandemic at a time when everyone was isolated.
Karen would go on to record music several times for our kids and was a fantastic colleague.
Here is Karen on the Inception Podcast talking about her involvement.
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