May 23, 2000. Karen gave her first lecture on the history of cabaret entitled, The Chronicle of Weimar Cabaret, at the Armstrong Music School of the Austin Lyric, Opera in Austin, TX. She has since conducted workshops and master classes on the history of cabaret, Kleinkunst, and the art of performance in conjunction with her concerts worldwide. Today she is an acknowledged authority and historian on the art of small stage performance and the roots of the cabaret artform in France and Germany. 

In the spring of 2016 and as an adjunct professor, Karen gave her presentation, The Tenth Muse: A History of Cabaret, as part of the acclaimed Hutton House lecture series at LIU/Post, where she met her husband Mac Kohler in 1982, and where they installed the Kohler Scholarship in the Cabaret Arts in 2007.

Karen’s cabaret history lecture and presentation titles have also included:

  • Music and Film of the Weimar Republic
  • Berlin in Exile
  • Kabarett in the Camps
  • When Cabaret Was Young: Montmartre to Manhattan