Dr. Karen Becker
Department Chair
Professor of Music
Dr. Karen Becker has been a member of the SUNY Plattsburgh faculty since 2005, making a significant impact on the campus as a performer, educator and administrator. As a performer, she established and produced the concert series Karen Becker and Friends, presenting national, regional and local artists including Metropolitan Opera mezzo Elizabeth Bishop, pianist Sonja Thompson, international tenor Vale Rideout and Juilliard violin faculty member Eric Grossman. After retiring from solo performance in 2024 — closing her solo career with Clair de Lune on the Plattsburgh Eclipse Concert — she continues to perform with Saratoga Voices, Saratoga Springs’ preeminent choral ensemble, while serving as a coach and mentor to students on campus. As an educator, Dr. Becker’s students have gone on to distinguished careers across the United States and internationally. Alumni include Yana Avedyan, now based in Munich with an active career as an artist and teacher; Maegan Polonais, a sought after voice teacher and academic leadership specialist in Trinidad; and AhYoung Yu, a collaborative and solo artist currently residing in Hawaii. Her students have been accepted to leading graduate programs including the Manhattan School of Music, Boston University, the University of Wisconsin, SUNY Stony Brook and the Crane School of Music.
A dynamic leader and administrator, Dr. Becker has served as department chair for more than ten years. During her tenure she has overseen a complete overhaul of the music B.A., redesigned the general education music curriculum and created the music B.S. in music arts management (MAM). The MAM program entered the catalog in 2019, with its first cohort graduating in 2021; graduates have since launched careers in radio, event management and business management. For the past five years she has worked tirelessly to bring the Myers Recording Studio project to fruition — the first dedicated music recording studio on campus. This facility fulfills her vision of a three-pronged arts management curriculum integrating business, marketing and music production. She secured private donations to fund the studio equipment and collaborated with Solid State Logic through a sponsorship agreement. A past NAMM Fellow, she has also mentored multiple students through the NAMM/CMS student program.
Courses include: Music Business, History of Rock, and Keyboard History