Karen Cowley

Biography

Karen Cowley is a musician, composer and music educator from Bray, Co. Wicklow. Best known as vocalist and keyboardist in the critically acclaimed band Wyvern Lingo with whom she toured internationally and released two number 1 albums, Karen’s performance career also saw her tour all over the world with Irish artists such as Lisa Hannigan, Hozier and Wallis Bird. Upon picking up the Irish harp during the pandemic, her harp-led solo project, Krea, won her an Arts Council Music bursary as well as a residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris.  

Karen’s academic career began with an undergraduate degree in Music and English Literature from Trinity College Dublin, where she returned in 2022 to complete a Professional Masters of Education. Karen also teaches with Music Generation, providing experiential music education in Dublin’s inner city, where Karen saw first-hand the potential of teaching with multicultural music resources that reflect the growing diversity of today’s Irish classroom. This inspired her research proposal, ‘Musicking for a global society: multicultural music education as an instrument for social justice’ for which she was granted a Trinity College Research Doctorate Award. She began her doctorate in October 2024 under the supervision of Dr. Susan McCormick.