Karen Impola
Studio One and Classical Music HostKaren Impola is the host of Iowa Public Radio's The Folk Tree and also writes for the IPR website. Karen began working at KUNI in 1990. Over the years, she has hosted both folk and classical music programs, as well as the precursor to Studio One Tracks. Before moving to Iowa, she hosted folk and progressive music shows at WXPN in Philadelphia, and was a production assistant at NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross.
Karen spent much of her childhood and adolescence holed up in her room with a record player. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology & Anthropology from Swarthmore College, where she also did her first radio show, at 6:00 a.m. on a ten-watt station, to an audience which numbered in the single digits. Her hobbies include singing, folkdancing, and gardening. You can contact Karen at kimpola@iowapublicradio.org.
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IPR Music hosts Karen Impola, Barney Sherman and Bob Dorr share their top picks for new music releases of 2021. -
IPR's Karen Impola created a list of five great folk songs to listen to for Labor Day.
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We are about halfway through 2020, as remarkable as that might seem. Here are some of Karen Impola's favorite new folk releases so far this year.…
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One unfortunate side effect of the pandemic is that group singing is not recommended, as it seems to be a very effective way to spread the virus. Like…
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This Sunday is Father’s Day. In honor of that fact, here are five videos of musical fathers and their grown children performing…
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Here’s a collection of five newly-written songs by midwestern folk musicians. Like a lot of us, they’re staying close to home these days, which makes it…
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Sunday is Mother’s Day. Music, especially Folk music, is often passed down in families. Here are five examples of mothers making music with their grown…
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May brings warm weather and blooming flowers here in the northern hemisphere. In folk songs, it also brings courtship. Countless traditional ballads in…
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Here’s a collection of songs from Midwestern artists, most of them newly recorded from wherever the artists find themselves these days. As the weeks of…
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On April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day was observed to call attention to the need to protect the environment. Ironically, the current pandemic crisis has…
