Karen Burciaga discovered early music while a student at Vanderbilt University. In 2004, she earned a Master of Music in Early Music Performance from the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA, studying violin with Dana Maiben and viol with Jane Hershey. Photograph of Karen Burciaga with bow As a soloist and chamber musician, she has performed with the King's Noyse, Seven Times Salt, Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra, Saltarello, Voices Rising, the Arcadia Players, and other period ensembles including appearances at the Boston, Bloomington, and Amherst Early Music Festivals.

Karen is on the string faculty of the Texas Toot in Austin, TX, where she also leads The Killer Bees, a baroque ensemble. Other musical interests include traditional Scottish fiddle and dance, American shape-note singing, and Italian Renaissance dance.