Dr. Karen Black is the Rudi Inselmann Endowed Professor of Organ at Wartburg College, Waverly, Iowa. She teaches organ and church music, music theory and aural skills, serves as organist for weekday chapel and other worship services, and conducts the Kantorei choral ensemble and Handbell Choir. She holds the Bachelor of Music degree in church music from St. Olaf College, the Master of Music degree in organ and church music from Indiana University, and the Doctor of Music degree in organ performance and literature from Indiana University.

Dr. Black is active as a recitalist and clinician and has performed throughout the United States. She has performed organ recitals in Germany, including at the Castle Church in Wittenburg and St. George’s Church in Eisenach. She has been heard on the nationally broadcast Pipedreams program. Her essay “J. S. Bach as Theologian-Musician” appears in Together By Grace: Introducing the Lutherans (Augsburg Fortress, 2016). She also has published organ and choral arrangements with Augsburg Fortress and Morningstar Music, including a collection of organ hymn introductions, Shine Like the Sun (Augsburg Fortress, 2018). In 2021 she released an organ album, Ein feste Burg, on the ARSIS label, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the installation of the Wartburg College Chapel Dobson organ.

Dr. Black recently served as North Central Regional Councillor of the American Guild of Organists. She has served as Dean of the Cedar Valley Chapter of the AGO and as Region III President of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, and also is an active member of the Organ Historical Society and ACDA.