Biography of Seo Yoon Kim (2019.05)

Seo Yoon Kim is a composer and violinist, born in South Korea. Her music takes inspirations from literature, nature, and Korean culture. Recently, Seo Yoon’s new opera Dear Father was premiered at Peabody Institute as a part of Opera Etudes Project, under the direction of Tony Arnold and Joann Kulesza.

Seo Yoon’s music has been performed across Korea, Russia, and the United States. Her first orchestral piece Autumn, Winter, Spring, and Summer Night (1998) won the Special Prize in the 30th Seoul Music Festival. Her opera Masha and Three Bears (1997) and ballet Wolf and Seven Little Goats (2000) were performed numerous times by the Novosibirsk Philharmonie, in Russia. She has collaborated with musicians from Austin, TX, including Density512 and Orpheus Academy, and her music was performed at the Blanton Museum of Art and The University of Texas at Austin.

Seo Yoon is a William Bolcom and Joan Morris Fellow composer at the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, where she will be working with the studio of soprano Tony Arnold and guitarist Manuel Barrueco in 2020. She is a proud recipient of the 49th Korean American Scholarship Foundation.

Seo Yoon is currently pursuing graduate studies in composition and music theory pedagogy at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where she is studying with composer Michael Hersch. She completed her undergraduate studies at Seoul National University with cum laude, earning degrees in musicology, Russian language and literature, and music education. Seo Yoon’s previous composition mentors include Yevgeniy Sharlat, Byung-dong Paik, Bong-ho Kim, and Mikhail Bogdanov.