Karlie Traversa began her journey in singing when she was six years old. As a child, she sang in her local children’s chorus and her school choirs. She also participated in various musical theater performances until her late teen years. Karlie was invited to sing overseas in Europe at the age of seventeen with a US touring choir. She toured in France, Germany, and Belgium. The following year, she was invited to sing in Assisi and Rome, Italy due to a high achievement with the Classical Singer Magazine’s Vocal Competition. In 2016, She graduated from North Park University in Chicago with an honors Bachelor of Arts in Music degree. In addition, she earned a Certificate for Music for Social Change and Human Values. In her studies, she invested her efforts in vocal performance and pedagogy singing with the North Park University choir, Gospel Choir, and Chamber Singers, and being involved with many opera theater productions inside and outside of university.

Today, Karlie is an active researcher and educator in El Sistema and Music Education in Human Values. She often uses her skills to meet and learn from children and teachers all over the world. She is certified in Education in Human Values research and pedagogy from the Human Values school in Thailand. She uses her training to intentionally draw out love, peace, truth, non-violence, and right conduct in every lesson. Karlie studies music education and social change closely because she recalls her fond transformative memories of music education in her childhood.

Karlie shared her work with various El Sistema nuclei in the past, such as The People’s Music School (Chicago’s only free music education establishment), where she offered her services as an administrator and a music theory teacher. Before moving to Los Angeles, she served her community as an early childhood music educator for the Chicago Center for Music Education.