Karen Tuttle was born Katherine Ann Tuttle on March 28, 1920, in Lewiston, Idaho. Early in adulthood, she changed her name to Karen. Karen became an accomplished violinist at an early age. She studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with William Primrose where she switched to the viola and developed the "Karen Tuttle Coordination Technique." Karen became a faculty member at the Curtis Institute of Music, as well as the Peabody Conservatory, the Mannes School of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, and the Banff Centre of Performing Arts.

She participated in six Marlboro Festivals under Rudolph Serkin, had solo performances with Scheider Chamber Orchestra, Scherman "Little Orchestra Society," and Saidenberg Chamber Orchestra, and toured across the United States as a viola soloist with the Camera Concerti and with the Association of American Colleges. Her Carnegie Hall debut was in 1960. Karen was a member of the Philomusica Chamber Society in New York, and the Theater Chamber Players in Washington, D.C. She was a member of The Julliard School faculty from 1987 to 2003. Karen Tuttle died December 16, 2011, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.