Karen Maddox Smith began her musical studies at the age of six on the piano. She discovered her passion for the cello when she joined the school orchestra five years later, which led to studies at first with her mother, a cellist in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and later with Martha Gerschefski. Karen continued her studies at Rice University with pedagogue and modern music advocate Norman Fischer. Upon graduation she studied abroad with Rainer Ginzel in Munich, Germany for a year before she moved on to an orchestral apprenticeship in southwestern Germany. Since 2002, Karen has been active as a free-lance cellist in North Texas, and she frequently performs with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and the Dallas Chamber Orchestra. She currently resides in Plano with her husband, son, and greyhound.