Rock + Metals
Around our house, we very much enjoy tuning into the YouTube channel The Charismatic Voice, hosted by Elizabeth Zharoff. She points out things in familiar songs we would never pick up on ourselves: the breath, the timing, the control, and the tiny choices vocalists bring to a performance.
Her enthusiasm really makes us laugh. It also makes us listen to music differently, even songs we are not too fussy about, because now we understand more of the skill and talent it takes.
Karen reminds me a little of Elizabeth. Not in personality, but in the same charismatic warmth and curiosity behind the way she sees things. She enjoys live music not only for the talent on stage, but for everything around it: the happiness in the crowd, the work underneath the sound, and the skill it takes to make everyone in a venue feel something.
Karen looks at art the same way. Which makes sense, really. Studio West was Karen Begg’s first classroom.
Ask her to name a favourite sculpture and she laughs at the impossibility of it. She is proud of all of them.
But when Karen talks about the works that are closest to her, she goes somewhere specific.
“We have been honouring women in bronze since 1974. Women in the military, women who built prairie communities, women whose dedication shaped our libraries, neighbourhoods and civic life. They are the unsung heroes who helped hold everything together.”
Bronze has this an inviting way of making people stop without making a big production of itself. It can be in a park, on a sidewalk or in the middle of town and somehow feel like it has always belonged there. Over time, the texture changes, the patina deepens and an everyday place starts to feel like a place with a story.
Walking into Cochrane’s Studio West is like walking into a chronicle of western Canada in bronze.
Since 1970 the family‑run foundry has cast everything from cowboys to soldiers. Karen’s parents, Don and Shirley Begg, now recipients of the Town of Cochrane’s 2024 Order of Cochrane, built the business from the ground up with Shirley’s father, Doug Stephens. He passed away not long after the foundry began, but his legacy still shapes what Studio West is today.
Don and Shirley's side of the story, from a 1962 meeting at a summer cottage to the first fine art bronze foundry in Western Canada, ran in the very first print edition of THE LOCAL.
"Growing up in the family business, I’m very close with my parents. I’m proud of them and that we’re three generations of entrepreneurs in the arts."
It's the Begg family’s unofficial motto. For Karen, she learned that disagreement does not have to mean disrespect. It can simply be part of getting something worthwhile done. Over time, the family mottto eventually became visible to others.
In 2022, Karen was recognized for her dedication with the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal for her work in the arts community.
In 2024, Karen received the Calgary Award for Community Advocate - Individual, recognition that reflected years of steady community work. Her nomination described her as a “long-time community advocate, volunteer and outstanding neighbour” who “goes out of her way to make a positive impact.”
“I grew up admiring how dedicated and hard working my parents are. Seeing how they worked through tough decisions, conflict and difficulties by listening, open communication, and honest discussions left a big impression.”
Building community is something people have to keep choosing.
Karen sees Cochrane as a place with room for more art, more gathering, and more reasons for people to look around and feel connected to where they live.
That interest is shaped by her travels, her reading on community development and public space, and her belief that creative ideas can help a town hold onto its character as it grows.
When she accepted the Calgary Award for Individual Community Advocate, she used the moment less as a spotlight and more as an invitation. Her speech was part thank-you and part reminder that community is often built through ordinary acts done consistently.
“I am multi-passionate. I love where I live. I love all my communities. Kudos to the gardeners, the stewards of little free libraries, those who work with free food, and everyone making a life in the arts. Stay creative.”
She credits her mother and grandmothers for her civic spirit.
“That influence comes from the women in my family. My mom volunteered with a variety of organizations and was passionate about community and civic work. She helped whenever and wherever she could. It was just part of my life, my childhood. I don’t think it was ever an option. If you can, do. Help whenever you can. Like giving blood, it’s in you to give.”
That ethos led her to join the Elephant Artist Relief Society.
The organization, where she now serves as president, offers emergency financial aid and career resources to artists in Calgary.
EAR began when a group of artists came together in 2007 to help a colleague with a medical crisis and has since grown into a hub for professional development and support.
Today, Karen oversees programs ranging from health‑insurance pilots to workshops on fiscal management and career advancement.
That work fits the way Karen tends to choose projects.
“I try to align my volunteerism with my passions that will lead to something new or a branch of something similar,” she says. “I love the arts, I enjoy gardening, and many of my projects incorporate one or both.”
The long view comes from family. Her grandmothers and great-grandmothers were part of her daily life well into adulthood, including her great-grandmother Mabel, who lived to 104. It helps explain why so many of Karen’s projects make room for seniors, artists and gardeners: the people who help keep communities human.
“The words ‘find your passion’ have often troubled me. They suggest there is one singular passion to discover.”
Karen does not exactly fit the expected mould.
Her days may be spent casting molten bronze and cultivating community, but her soundtrack leans pure metal. She jokes that the only instrument she plays is the stereo, and her devotion started early: first Billy Joel’s Glass Houses, then AC/DC’s Back in Black, the cassette that turned the volume in a heavier direction.
I don't really enjoy dancing, she admits with a grin, adding that working in a foundry while listening to heavy metal feels delightfully rebellious.
“Music bonds us all.
When I travel to places where English isn’t the main language, the other fans try so hard to welcome me, and we have that common bond: the music.”
In July 1985, Karen was 16 when the dual-continent Live Aid concert came through the television.
Wembley. Philadelphia. Queen. Bowie. U2. Millions watching around the world. She remembers being glued to the screen, watching a concert become a global act.
It planted the seed for what came later: AC/DC. Ozzy. Metallica. Anthrax. Los Angeles, London, Birmingham, Mexico and wherever else the music was worth travelling for.
Live Aid became one of the biggest concert broadcasts in history, reaching nearly 2 billion viewers in more than 150 countries and raising over $125 million for famine relief.
Phil Collins was the only artist to perform live at both main Live Aid concerts, playing in London before boarding Concorde and crossing the Atlantic to perform again in Philadelphia.
Decades later, that feeling came full circle with the final Ozzy Osbourne show broadcast from Birmingham in July 2025, just weeks before his passing. Karen calls it part of her dream festival. “It had a fantastic line up and was done for charity.” Like Live Aid before it, it was one of those rare music moments that pulled in millions and carried real emotional weight.
Since 2022, Karen has seen Metallica twice a year. Sacramento. Inglewood. Edmonton. Denver.
Different city. Different crowd. Different charge in the air. Each show becomes its own version of the same thunder.
She completely understands why the Virginia Tech Metallica Quake happened. In 2025, more than 60,000 fans jumped during “Enter Sandman” hard enough for seismologists to record the ground moving about a mile away.
That is what she keeps going back for: finding out what happens when a different city plugs into the same current.
Cochrane is Karen's home base. Her dad was born and raised here. She has watched the town evolve over 50 years, and she speaks about that evolution with pride.
She also knows, in a growing place, that community development has many facets. There's tourism, the arts, placemaking and the question every town eventually faces: how do you grow without losing what makes people care?
Karen reads about placemaking and community building, and she finds inspiration from travelling, something her parents did not just for relaxation, but for learning. Her mom was a teacher, and travel came with an educational agenda. Karen calls herself a lifelong learner.
Looking forward, Karen plans to travel more, continue her community work and take on new projects. But the simplest version may be the one she shared in her Calgary Awards speech: “Smile lots, and if nothing else, be kind.”
“I can find beauty in almost everything, sometimes through a minimalist lens and sometimes with a maximalist eye.”
Puerto Vallarta, 2025. Last song of the night, and the sky still sings.
STORY CLOSER. COMMUNITY CONTINUES.
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