Born in Puerto Rico, Karla began playing the violin at age three. At age twelve, Karla moved with her family to California where she continued her studies with Anne Crowden, director and founder of The Crowden School. Karla completed her Bachelors and Masters degrees at the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying performance with violin teachers Paul Kantor, David Cerone, and William Preucil. She was a member of the WO-MEN String Quartet at CIM, which received several awards and performed for the Kennedy Center and the Cleveland Chamber Music Society. Karla has collaborated in chamber music with Frederica von Stade, Gary Karr, and members of the Guarneri, Juilliard and Takacs Quartets, among others. She has performed as a soloist with the Berkeley Symphony, Sacramento Philharmonic, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Oakland East Bay Symphony, Sphinx Symphony Orchestra, Sphinx Chamber Orchestra and the New World Symphony. She has been guest concertmaster at the Tucson Symphony and spent two years as a fellow at the New World Symphony, often as concertmaster or principal second violin. Karla plays on a violin made in 2013 by world-renowned German luthier Stefan-Peter Greiner, supported in part by a Sphinx MPower Artist grant. Her fine violin bow is by Victor Fetique, from the Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation. She is married to violist Paul Laraia.
