The American violist and pedagogue Karen Tuttle was born on March 28, 1920 in Lewiston, Idaho. After initial studies as a violinist, she later changed to the viola, initiating her studies on this instrument with the Scottish violist William Primrose at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. She subsequently became his teaching assistant from 1945. Upon Primrose's departure from Curtis in 1951, she became head of the departments of viola and chamber music, a position which she held until 1956. She participated in the Prades Festival in France in 1950 and later regularly at the Marlboro Festival. A member of the Galimir String Quartet for several seasons, she was later invited by the Lithuanian violinist Alexander Schneider to join The Schneider String Quartet. The quartet's specific mission was to record the complete string quartets of Joseph Haydn for the Haydn Society. Although the project was never completed, these recordings became renowned.
The Schneider Quartet performed the complete cycle in a series of twenty-one concerts given at New York's 92 Street Y. In 1971 Karen Tuttle began to teach viola and chamber music at the Philadelphia Institute of Music and during this same year, viola at the Peabody Institute. From 1978 she taught chamber music at the Curtis Institute and from 1980 joined the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music and the Mannes School. She taught at the Aspen Music Festival and School from 1979 to 1986. She was re-appointed viola teacher at the Curtis Institute in 1986 and in 1987 appointed at the Juilliard School, subsequently renouncing her activities at the Mannes School, Manhattan School of Music and the Peabody Institute. In 1994 she received the Artist Teaching Award from the American String Teachers Associatian.