BLINN COLLEGE APPOINTS NEW VOCAL INSTRUCTOR
Blinn College has appointed a new vocal instructor to its Brenham Campus.
The college named Dr. Soo Yeon Kim as the new addition. Kim has an impressive resume of experience. In the course of Kim’s 20-year teaching career, she has instructed students at Nazareth College in Rochester, N.Y.; Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa; the University of Michigan-Flint; and Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio; and presented numerous lecture recitals and master classes for academic institutions across the nation and abroad.
However, it is Kim’s career as a lyric coloratura soprano that has led her to the world’s most prominent stages. She performed a solo recital at Carnegie Hall in 1998, and made her Kennedy Center debut with the Korean Symphony Orchestra in 2004. Her performance in Handel’s “Messiah” with the Annapolis Symphony at the U.S. Naval Academy was telecast on PBS, and other standout performances include a concert at Chicago Symphony Hall; a concert with the Czech National Symphony in Prague, Czech Republic as a soprano soloist in Dvorak’s “Te Deum;” a Christmas concert in Eisenach, Germany, the birthplace of J.S. Bach; and a performance as Pamina in Mozart’s “Die Zauberflote,” performed at the Operafestival di Roma in Rome, Italy.
Kim was recently named an alternate for a prestigious Core Fulbright Scholar Award on the research topic of “G.F. Handel’s English Arias for Soprano” in Great Britain, and is the recipient of several fellowship awards and grants, including Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood and the Aspen Music Festival.
Kim holds a Bachelor of Music in voice performance from the New England Conservatory of Music, a Master of Music in voice performance from Boston University and a Doctor of Musical Arts in voice performance and literature from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
She had recently relocated to Katy from California when she learned Blinn was seeking a new vocal instructor. “I heard many good things about Blinn in the community, and I was really interested in working at a smaller college where students and instructors can have a close-knit relationship,” Kim said.
An instructor since 1997, Kim compared teaching music to gardening – planting seeds of knowledge before a student’s talent blossoms.
“It takes a lot of hard work and dedication, but when you see that talent bloom, it’s all worth it,” she said. “As an educator, I think one of the most important things is to help my students take the next step in their music career. I especially enjoy helping students find excellent music programs at four-year universities.”
As Blinn’s vocal instructor, Kim will provide one-on-one instruction for music majors and non-majors alike. Students interested in participating in Blinn’s Vocal Studies Program can contact Dr. Paulo Gomes, choir director, at paulo.gomes@blinn.edu or 979-830-4239.
In addition to its full slate of music courses, Blinn offers performance opportunities through its marching band, wind symphony, symphonic band, jazz ensemble, steel band, woodwind ensemble, brass ensemble, marching auxiliaries, percussion ensemble, choral union, women’s chorus and choral ensemble. For more information, visit www.blinn.edu/vpa.