Member of the Year
2015-2016 & 2003-2004

About Karen Koch

Karen Koch is a private teacher Kirkwood, MO, but taught for many years in Trenton, IL.  Karen holds dual membership in Missouri and Illinois, and has held virtually every office in the Gateway Arch East Chapter and currently serves as Vice President of Programs for St. Louis Piano Teachers Round Table. She recently completed a term as president.

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Karen has had wide experience in many areas of teaching, before her currently reduced teaching load. She has been a high school French and English teacher, administrative secretary and music teacher in Montessori pre-schools, music teacher grades K-12, community and liberal arts college music instructor, and organist and choir director for children's, teen and adult church choirs. She currently enjoys participating in a 50-voice choir.

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As a freelance writer, she has had articles published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch food section, and in various educational and professional journals, and wrote a chapter for a recent textbook, Creative Piano Teaching, Fourth Edition, edited by James Lyke, Geoffrey Haydon, & Catherine Rollin.

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Karen is a graduate of Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, where she majored in modern languages (and extracurricular activities, especially musical ones!) Having thought of herself for years as a jack-of-all-trades, she became master of one in 1986 when she received an MA in Piano Performance and Pedagogy at Webster University, St. Louis.  Her thesis study sought an approach to introducing and structuring music history for students.  The resulting MY OWN MUSIC HISTORY became a product, and ultimately led to the formation of Music Educators’ Marketplace.

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Her husband, Edward, of fifty-seven years died unexpectedly November 25, 2020 following a fall.  They have three adult children and four grandchildren, all of whom have had some piano lessons from their grandmother. Karen is deeply grateful for the joys and opportunities that music and musical people have brought into her life. Gateway Music Teachers have been a big part of her life.