About
A professional musician for the past 21 years, Karen Guthery makes her home in Los Angeles where she works as a composer, songwriter, arranger and orchestrator for film, television and the recording studio. A graduate of Boston's world renowned Berklee College of Music, her solid grounding in both Jazz and Classical music has given her tremendous versatility in her writing and made her a sought after collaborator at all levels.
Recently Karen has worked as an orchestrator on the movie "Beethoven's Big Break" and Eli Roth's films "Hostel" and "Hostel Part II." She also provided additional orchestrations for the "Transformers" video game and "Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild." Karen wrote a Big Band arrangement for the song "New Shoes" for Verve/GRP recording artist Mindi Abair's second CD entitled "Come As You Are." She was then called upon to write a Big Band adaptation of Mindi's hit song "Flirt" for the Grammy Foundation's "Women Mavericks of Music" event at which Mindi was a featured performer.
Karen co-wrote the song "The Hebe Jebe" with Matt McGuire which was featured in a Halloween television special entitled "Monster Mash." Her original music can be heard in the short films "The Breatheasy" and "The Boardwalk Spy and Other Stories."
Originally from Colorado, Karen began by studying classical flute with Susanella Noble in Boulder Colorado. She later went to Boston where she studied with Herb Pomeroy, Ken Pullig, Bob Freedman, Dick Lowell, Greg Hopkins and Dennis Grillo at Berklee College of Music. In 1990, Karen graduated from Berklee with a degree in Jazz Composition. During her time at Berklee, she was awarded the prestigious Quincy Jones Jazz Masters and John Dankworth Jazz Masters Awards.
Karen has done extensive work as a music copyist, proofreader, midi transcriptionist and music librarian and these skills make her a highly valuable asset in the fast-paced world of film and television music and has allowed her the privilege of working for such musical luminaries as Don Davis, Randy Newman, David Newman, John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, James Newton Howard, Alan Silvestri, Klaus Badelt, Brian Tyler, John Debney, Robert Rodriguez, Nathan Barr and Elliot Goldenthal.
Karen has worked on more than 100 film and television projects, including "Fast and Furious 4", "Public Enemies", "Dragonball: Evolution", "Eagle Eye", "Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem", "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", "Behind Enemy Lines", "Catch Me if You Can", "Signs", "Enemy of the State", "Jurassic Park III", "Monsters Inc.", "Chicago", "Star Trek: Nemesis", "Matrix Reloaded", "Matrix Revolutions", "Once Upon a Time in Mexico", "You, Me & Dupree", "Poseidon", "Cat Woman", "Constantine", "Futurama", "The Simpsons" and "Boston Public" among others.
In her free time, Karen enjoys reading, hiking and sitting in little cafes visiting with friends. She will also ski on any surface.