Karen S. Barbera met her collaborator, Ellingtonian Randall Keith Horton, in the dining car of a train. Their definitive work on the history and resurrection of Duke Ellington’s Black, Brown and Beige will be released when the first public performance of the Ellington-Horton Black, Brown and Beige premiers in January 2022.

Karen is a Public Relations professional who has worked with of some of the top consumer product companies, including Wendy’s, Kraft Foods, Procter & Gamble, Avon Products, The Campbell Soup Company, Dial, Abbott Laboratories, Junior Achievement and The Ford Motor Company. She is the author of four biographical books on historically significant individuals and a contributing writer to several magazines. She has also conducted investigative journalism for The Wall Street Journal, KVOA-TV (NBC), Ohio’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), and the Arizona Attorney General. She and her husband Randy reside in Southern California and enjoy spending time with their six grown children and their expanding families.