About the Author

Karen LeFrak is a philanthropic New Yorker involved in many charitable endeavors in the city and state.  Her interest in the arts led to her appointment by Governor George Pataki to be a member of the New York State Council on the Arts.  A Director of the New York Philharmonic, she chairs its Music Policy and serves on the Executive, Marketing and Education Committees.  Ms. LeFrak chaired the Orchestra’s 150th Anniversary Ball, presided over the Volunteer Council and as an Assistant Archivist, responded to research questions about the Orchestra’s history.  She served as an Archival Curator of exhibits, as well.

A magna cum laude graduate of Mt. Holyoke College, Ms. LeFrak earned her MA in Music History from Hunter College.  Her thesis “In Search of the New Classics” which surveyed the commissioning activity of the New York Philharmonic from 1842-1986, won the Dean’s Award in Arts and Humanities.  Her education also includes courses in archival management and historical editing at New York University.  She has just completed her first children’s book Jake the Philharmonic Dog to teach children about music and the people who perform it.  It is being published in September 2006 by Walker Books, a division of Bloomsbury Publishing.

In addition to her Philharmonic affiliation, she remains an active board member of the Women’s Committee of the Central Park Conservancy after completing her tenure as President for which she received the Frederick Law Olmsted Award.  Ms. LeFrak is a member of the Administrative Board of Sloan-Kettering Memorial Cancer Center, and former Vice president of the Center’s “Dream Team,” which grants wishes to terminally ill patients.

Ms. LeFrak was a co-chairman of the American Kennel Club’s DOGNY project that raised over two million dollars for the benefit of search and rescue dogs across the country.  She is a board member of the Canine Health Foundation and is also an Honorary Board member of the Delta Society, an organization that certifies animals and handlers to perform animal-assisted therapy to medically fragile children and adults.   She has taken her retired show dogs who have received this service certification to Mt. Sinai Hospital and New York University Hospital.   She and her dogs provided therapy to the victims and families affected by the September 11th Twin Tower tragedy.  For these efforts she was awarded both the James Hammerstein and the New York Women’s Agenda Star Breakfast Awards in 2004. 

A former nursery school music teacher, Ms. LeFrak also has been a national spokesperson for a Proctor & Gamble product, and a television commercial actress for international companies such as Colgate and Johnson & Johnson. 

Ms. LeFrak continues to study classical piano, a passion since childhood.  Her other interests include breeding and showing champion standard poodles.  She is proud of her illustrious show dog Ch. Ale Kai Mikimoto on Fifth who earned two consecutive group wins at Westminster. “Miki” just retired from competition as America’s number one standard poodle with eighty-eight Best in Show titles to his name.