Karen McFeeters, a native of St. Albans, Vermont, emerged on the local folk music scene in 2000 when she participated in the Songwriter’s Showcase at Burlington’s Contois Auditorium. Since then she has been performing her original contemporary folk/pop music in venues throughout Vermont.
She has participated in events such as the St. Albans Concert in the Park Series, the Mad River Valley Festival of the Arts, First Night Burlington, and the Independence Day Celebration on the State House lawn in Montpelier. Robert Resnick and Mary Engisch have featured her songs on their Vermont Public radio programs. Karen has also been interviewed on local television and radio stations.
In August 2002, Karen released her debut CD, Bachelor Girl, to a standing room only crowd at the FlynnSpace in Burlington. Bachelor Girl was chosen as one of the Top 10 Best of 2002 releases by Vermont Artists.
In October 2004, Karen released her second CD of original music, Maybe Day, which was celebrated via shows in both Burlington and St. Albans. Her rendition of “My Only Son” (written by Carol Abair) was selected for inclusion on Big Heavy World’s compilation CD In Silver Light.
Between 2005 and 2008, Karen focused on community service by headlining benefit concerts: WomenFolk (with Susannah Clifford Blachly, Kristina Stykos, Carol Abair and Rebecca Padula) and Karen McFeeters & Friends (with Paul Webb, Craig Anderson, John Gibbons and Carol Abair). Proceeds benefited Kids On The Block Vermont (now known as Puppets in Education).
In March 2009, Karen released her third CD, Here and Now. Here and Now was chosen as one of the best singer/songwriter albums of 2009 by the Times Argus.
In April 2021, Karen released her long-awaited fourth CD, Bonfire. It was included in the Times Argus’ “Art’s Picks,” a list of the “best popular music Vermont has produced” for holiday gift giving that year.
Karen has given community lectures on the craft of songwriting and taught a four-week class entitled Beginning Songwriting for Teens through Burlington City Arts in 2003. She taught a songwriting course for adults in the spring of 2005.
Karen’s professional background is in the field of medical speech-language pathology with a specialty in voice. In 2014, she founded and began directing the Aphasia Choir of Vermont, a group of stroke and traumatic brain injury survivors who can sing despite having significant difficulty speaking or being nonverbal. Following a two-year hiatus due to COVID, the choir resumed in March 2022 and performed for a large crowd at the Milton Outdoor Performance Center that June.
In 2019, Karen completed a two-year training program to become a Certified Music Practitioner through the Music for Healing & Transition Program.