Karen Gibson

After earning a B.A. in Human Resource Development (Training and Development) from Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, Karen Gibson moved to Iowa and later New Mexico to raise Arabian horses; concurrently she taught a variety of courses in proprietary business schools in both states. In the early 90s she returned to Chicago and earned a paralegal certificate from Roosevelt University, eventually working as a paralegal in estate planning and later commercial real estate. She has also taught paralegals and legal secretaries. Desiring to return to her love of teaching, she turned her career focus to teaching early childhood music classes and piano lessons in 2000. Since then she has grown her piano studio to an average of 60 - 70 students, working with children as young as 4 and adults even in their 70s and 80s. "You are never too old or too young to learn!" exclaims Karen. In the spirit of constantly learning and trying new things, Karen decided to totally revamp her piano studio program and started writing her own pieces to use with her students in 2012. Results have far exceeded expectations and Karen's main goal of working with students young and old as they learn how to create music and have fun with it is being achieved on a daily basis. In October, 2013, Karen published her first issue of The Piano Bench Mag on Apple's Newsstand. Recently Karen took up photography and she enjoys photographing nature when she has opportunity to hike or cruise.