Karen Shinozaki, Principal second violin of the Santa Rosa Symphony, is familiar to Bay Area audiences as a soloist, guest leader, and member of several orchestras in the region. She performs with the New Century Chamber Orchestra, the Marin Symphony, the Sun Valley Summer Symphony as a regular extra in the San Francisco Opera and Ballet Orchestras, and is a frequent chamber music collaborator, playing diverse groups including the Santa Rosa Chamber Players, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, the Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players, the Sor Ensemble and the Galapagos Quartet. 

Highlights of recent seasons include the world premiere of the Double Violin Concerto by Viennese composer Zdzislaw Wysocki, dedicated to her, her brother Rick Shinozaki and Kent Nagano leading the Berkeley Symphony; and performances of the Bach Double Concerto with Joseph Edelberg, Jeffrey Kahane and the Santa Rosa Symphony.

A semi-finalist at the Paganini International Violin Competition in Genoa, Karen has performed in Europe and Asia in competition and in master classes for renowned violinists and pedagogues such as Nathan Milstein, Josef Gingold, Ruggiero Ricci, and Franco Gulli. After graduating from U.C. Berkeley, she furthered her studies in Switzerland with Professor Igor Ozim at the Konservatorium Bern as a recipient of the Hertz Traveling Fellowship. She maintains a strong relationship with her longtime teacher, mentor and friend, Serban Rusu of Tiburon.

Karen has recorded with the Grammy-nominated New Century Chamber Orchestra, the Santa Rosa Symphony, and the Santa Rosa Symphony, the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, and the band Baby Snufkin. In her free time, she likes to relax with her cats Ellie and Bass and indulge in her addiction to crossword puzzles.