A New York City native from an immigrant family, Karina’s story began in the basement of her grandmother’s house, where she lived with her young parents. Karina’s mother was still attending school, and her father, who had previously been deported but made his way back to pursue the American Dream, worked multiple jobs.
In those days, Karina spent most of her time with her grandmother. Life wasn’t always easy- but growing up in a Latinx household meant music was always playing: during car rides, family time, and every Saturday morning while cleaning the house. In these early years, Karina found an escape in music. Singing felt like peace, joy, and purpose.
Fast-forward to 2009: As Karina was preparing to choose between music school acceptances, the Recession hit. Her father was laid off along with thousands of others. Fortunately, Karina had been offered a full academic scholarship to Fordham University. It wasn’t a music school, but Karina found a way to make it work for her.
While working multiple jobs and maintaining a high GPA to keep the scholarship, Karina founded her own jazz vocal ensemble, The Hot Notes. She spent all of her free time arranging and directing for this group, while also composing her own songs.
She shined in her music courses, auditioned for and was awarded scholarships for voice lessons, and was soon offered the opportunity to attend Juilliard evening courses at no extra cost, while continuing to attend Fordham during the day. Karina agreed to be the first Fordham student to attend both schools, and excelled at Juilliard.
In addition to Juilliard, Karina spent summers studying at the Berklee College of Music, and in 2012 transferred her Fordham scholarship to the Music Conservatory of Granada, in Spain. Each of these institutions contributed to Karina’s musical identity, which she began crafting and re-crafting while composing music and finding find her own authentic style.
Karina’s sound reflects her diverse musical background as she draws influence from classical, latin, folk, pop, and jazz. The fusion artist’s range of experience and vocal versatility have led to features on albums of almost every genre (from hip-hop to classical to Latin-pop), and venues ranging from the renowned BlueBird cafe in Nashville to Carnegie Hall.
Karina’s sophomore EP was released in 2023 to high praise. Currently, Karina is working on future releases while also preparing to announce more tour dates to promote her recent EP, Viajera.