Karen Dutton was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA starting her musical training at age 7 on the piano and moving to flute in Jr. High. She graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in Music Education, Masters in Education and a Single Subject Credential in Music.

She has taught music in the Santa Barbara School District for the past 25 years. Currently she teaches music at Santa Barbara Junior High, Harding and Roosevelt elementary schools. She is co-chair of the Districts’ after school BRAVO program and currently serves as a mentor teacher in the Santa Barbara County New Teacher Induction Program. She conducted the SBCC Adult Education Orchestra for several years and served as a flute instructor to the Prime Time Band in its first year of operation. She was 1st chair flute in the SBCC Concert Band for 10 years and is currently playing in a flute quartet.

She met her husband Winston in the music department at UCLA where he was studying music composition and theory. She has two sons, Aaron and Noah. Aaron is a freshman at the University of North Texas studying Jazz Performance and Noah is a junior at San Marcos High School and plays trumpet in the Marching Band and Concert Band.