Karen Atherton is the director of bands at Frontier Regional Jr.-Sr. High School in South Deerfield, MA. A graduate cum laude with departmental honors from the University of Massachusetts she is a past chairperson of the Massachusetts Western District Music Educators Association, and the current Secretary of the Quabbin Valley Music Educators Association. Ms. Atherton's bands at Frontier consistently receive gold-medal ratings at the Great East Music Festivals and commissioned a work by composer John Frantzen, which was premiered at the new Frontier Music Facility in South Deerfield. In 1997 Ms. Atherton received the Frontier Parent-Teacher Group Teacher Excellence Award and in 2000 she was recognized as the Western District Music Educator of the Year and received the 2005 Lowell Mason Award from the Massachusetts Music Educators Association. As a free-lance trumpet player Karen keeps busy with the Pioneer Valley Symphony, the Massachusetts Wind Orchestra and the Clarion Brass Quintet. She was the conductor of the Smith College Wind Ensemble in Northampton, MA for 4 years. After returning from the 2004 USYE tour, Karen departed for Australia with her trombonist husband Tim to tour Australia for 25 days with the Danbury Brass Band. In addition to keeping her trumpet skills in shape, Karen has also studied Italian for several years at the University of Massachusetts and has made a number of trips to Europe in addition to her nine previous tours with the US Youth Ensembles. Karen was awarded a Fulbright teacher exchange with Lincolnshire, England for the 2006-2007 school year. She is looking forward to heading back to Europe once again with the US Youth Ensembles in 2008 for her tenth tour.