Sooyun Kim is a member of the flute faculty at Longy School of Music. She has performed as a classical soloist since she debuted with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of ten. She has performed with groups such as the Bavarian Radio, Munich Philharmonic, Munich Chamber, and Boston Pops orchestras. Recently, she has explored new possibilities for interdisciplinary connection between music, dance, film and visual art.
Longy is a very warm and welcoming community where you can feel free and safe to experiment, knowing that everyone will welcome your ideas!
As musicians, we have so much to learn from each other. Thinking about the modern poetry of hip hop or the power of heavy metal can teach us a lot about our own instruments, as classical musicians, or any kind of musician.
We can also learn from performers in other disciplines, because musicians are interpretive artists in the same way that actors and actresses are. You can look at different actors’ performances of the same Shakespeare soliloquy, or different singers’ performances of the national anthem at a football game, and each one will be great in a different way. That teaches us about the process of interpreting music and how we can take a composer’s piece and bring it to life in our own way.
I’ve always been fascinated by how music is so abstract—we don’t smell it or see it, but it stirs up the human psyche more than any other medium of art. That paves the way for performers to experiment with interdisciplinary projects that pair other mediums like visual art with music. I’ve always enjoyed collaborating with other artists to present music alongside art, and that concept has been a big part of my teaching lately.
Longy is the perfect place to explore this kind of inspiration and realize this kind of idea. The main reason I chose to come here was the school’s openness in its approach to education. I love our open studio concept, where any student of any instrument can observe a lesson from any teacher. That’s an amazing way to learn, and it shows the thoughtfulness and open-mindedness behind Longy’s curriculum.
Another thing I love about our program is the requirement that all students create a full portfolio before they graduate. That’s proof the school is producing musicians who are ready to be professionals now. They don’t just learn how to play their instruments really well—they grow into fully functioning musicians.