Karen Lemon is an Australian composer and musicologist.  She holds a Bachelor of Music Education (with merit) with a Major in piano (having studied with Albert Landa and Adene McInnes) and Minor in composition (having studied with a number of prominent Australasian composers, including Anne Boyd and Gillian Whitehead) from the NSW State Conservatorium of Music as well as a Bachelor of Music (First Class Honours) in Musicology from the University of Sydney.  Her PhD in Musicology, on Schoenberg’s post-tonal music c.1910, was also awarded by the University of Sydney.  Studies in Dalcroze Eurhythmics took Karen abroad – her Certificate in Dalcroze Eurhythmics from NSW State Conservatorium of Music was undertaken with supplementary examination at the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva, Switzerland, and from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA she gained both the Certificate and License in Dalcroze Eurhythmics.

As a performer, Karen was active in Sydney as a chorister and vocalist, most notably as a foundation and lifetime member of the new music choir The Contemporary Singers and as founder and director of and arranger for the pop-jazz a cappella ensemble The Five Skins.

Despite studies in composition in her undergraduate days, it has only been in recent years that Karen has returned to it.  She has been privileged to have had her music performed in locations as diverse as Sydney, Los Angeles, New York and Cambridge, and by such distinguished performers as Thomas Hutchinson, Artur Cimirro and Gwion Thomas.  Karen has composed music by commission or on request for CAMS, Hourglass Ensemble and the University of Bristol Schola Cantorum, and several of her works have been prizewinners in composition competitions, including Gesualdo Six, Renée B. Fisher and Opus Dissonus.

Karen has worked as a lecturer in Musicology at the Conservatoriums of the University of Sydney and the University of Tasmania, and is an Associate Represented Artist with the Australian Music Centre.  She currently divides her time between Australia and France.