A native of Palo Alto, California Karen Bentley Pollick studied with Camilla Wicks in San Francisco and joined the class of Josef Gingold at Indiana University, earning BM and MM degrees with a cognate field in Choral Conducting. She joined the Paul Dresher ElectroAcoustic Band in 1999 and performs with Seattle based Joy Street Orchestra. Her multimedia project ‘Solo Violin and Alternating Currents’ received a grant from the NEA and evolved into ‘Violin, Viola & Video Virtuosity’. Karen received a Seed Money Grant for Disseminated Performances from New York Women Composers. While residing in Vilnius she performed ‘Resonances from Vilna’ with pianist Jascha Nemtsov and premiered David A. Jaffe’s violin concerto How Did It Get So Late So Soon? with the Lithuanian National Opera & Ballet Theatre Orchestra. Karen’s debut recording for Toccata Classics presents Hermann Graedener’s two violin concertos with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. Her recordings garnered top recognition in the Global Music Awards: Graedener Violin Concertos, Chamber Music of Ivan Sokolov, Orchestral Music of Ole Saxe, featuring the premiere recording of his violin concerto My Manchu Princess & Dance Suite, and most recent release Music for Emily Dickinson presenting Ten Songs without Words by Virko Baley. A founding member of Virtuosos de Cámara, Karen presents chamber music concerts in Puerto Vallarta and Nayarit. Recent concerts include the premieres of Pietà by Jerry Mader and ROMANTARCTICA by Henning Kraggerud, plus live video of MAQA VIOLIN by Yitzhak Yedid. She presented ‘Homage to Ukraine’ with music by Ukrainian composers Ludmila Yurina and Virko Baley at Stanford University’s CCRMA in September 2022 and launched Music for Emily Dickinson with pianist Timothy Hoft at University of Nevada Doc Rando Recital Hall on August 31, 2023.
Ariel Ventures was created in 1996 with the CD release of 'Ariel View: Tone Poems for Violin & Piano' with Bruce Hanifan. Originally focused on audio recordings, Ariel Ventures has expanded into presenting live violin performances with a wide range of styles and collaborators. 'Violin, Viola & Video Virtuosity' features live violin with video elements projected behind the performer to create a liminal space to explore sonically and visually.