Karen Tanaka (b. Tokyo, Japan) is a versatile composer and pianist. She studied composition with Akira Miyoshi at Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, Tristan Murail in Paris, and Luciano Berio in Florence.

In 1987, she was awarded the Gaudeamus Prize in the Netherlands for her piano concerto Anamorphose. In 1996 received the Margaret Lee Crofts Fellowship at the Tanglewood Music Center, and in 1998 was appointed as Co-Artistic Director of the Yatsugatake Kogen Music Festival in Japan.

Tanaka’s works have been performed by distinguished orchestras and ensembles worldwide, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Brodsky Quartet, Gothic Voices and Anúna, among many others.

She has scored numerous short films, animations and documentaries. In 2012, she was selected as a fellow of the Sundance Institute’s Composers Lab for feature film and mentored by Hollywood’s leading composers. In 2016, Tanaka served as an orchestrator for the BBC TV series Planet Earth II. She scored the animated film Sister, which was selected for prestigious film festivals including Sundance, Annecy, Ottawa, and nominated for the 92nd Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film.