Karen Dervan

Karen Dervan is a musician and music manager from Galway who has enjoyed a hugely varied career in the arts in Ireland. Since returning to live in Galway in 2025, Karen has founded Elevation Ensemble and is busying herself to support music making and community building in the west of Ireland. She devised The Pale Blue Dot show for Elevation Ensemble, a marriage of music and astronomy history, the origins of which trace back to Mayo Dark Sky Festival 2024, when Karen performed as part of the festival finale concert.

Currently the General Manager of New Music Dublin and a former co-curator of the Kaleidoscope multi-genre music series, Karen’s skills off the stage have been matched by her onstage credentials. A regular performer as a viola player with all of the island’s orchestras and a busy chamber and recording musician, Karen was also previously a member of the post-rock collective 3epkano, with whom she made several appearances in the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the National Gallery, Washington DC. She enjoyed a close working friendship with the late Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, sharing stages with him across Ireland for 15 years until the composer’s untimely death.

Karen is a recent recipient of the Arts Council of Ireland Music Bursary, the Galway County Council Arts Bursary and the Music Network Instrument Fund (Robert Sourzac baroque viola).