Kimberly Soby

PhD Candidate, Music Theory & History

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M.M. Opera Studies, New England Conservatory

M.M. Vocal Performance, New England Conservatory

B.M. Vocal Performance, University of Connecticut

 

Soprano, pianist, and teacher Kimberly Soby brings joy to concert halls and classrooms alike. She passionately uses her vast experience to promote music for new generations of performers and music lovers.

Teaching experience includes an appointment at Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Florida, where she was an Adjunct Professor in Voice. She also taught many years as an Adjunct Professor at New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida, a magnet arts high school and college conservatory affiliated with Miami Dade College and the University of Florida, where she worked in both the musical theater and music departments designing and teaching multiple courses. At University of Connecticut, Kim has led discussion sections for Popular Music and Diversity in American Society and was Instructor of Record for Music Fundamentals and Ear Training for non-majors. In academic year 2022-23, she will be Instructor of Record for Harmony I and II, and will be a Studio Instructor for First Year Writing courses through the English department.

Her passion for education and performance also brought her to Florida Grand Opera as a Teaching Artist in their Cadenza program, bringing classical music and opera to underprivileged children throughout greater South Florida. Additionally, she performed for three seasons with Young Patronesses of the Opera’s In School Opera Tour.​

She attended the University of Connecticut for her undergraduate degree where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Music Degree in Vocal Performance in 2007. She then matriculated to New England Conservatory where she earned dual Masters Degrees with Academic Honors and was the sole recipient in 2010 of the Master of Music Degree in Opera Studies. As part of this degree program, she was hired as an Opera Fellow with the now-defunct Opera Boston where she covered and performed a diverse array of challenging, non-traditional repertoire.

Returning to her home state of Connecticut, Kim is a Ph.D. student in Music Theory and History at the University of Connecticut where she is also pursuing a Graduate Certificate in Feminist Studies. Her research interests include the synthesis of performance and analysis, the feminist perspective to musical studies, and the music of Dame Ethel Smyth. In Summer 2022, Kim worked as a research intern for the Boulanger Initiative, an organization promoting women and gender marginalized composers. She has presented at Association for Literary Critics, Scholars, and Writers, The Southern Graduate Music Research Symposium, and the National Opera Association. She has also participated in workshops with Dr. Kyle Adams (Indiana University) and Dr. Rhiannon Mathias (Bangor University, UK)

Kim’s research will be heard this upcoming season of the SMT-Podcast, where she will discuss a gender-analysis approach in settings of Chamisso’s Frauenliebe und -leben by Robert Schumann, Carl Loewe, and contemporary American composer, Elizabeth R. Austin. She is also currently the editorial assistant for the American Jewish Year Book, an annual journal dedicated to North American Jewry in print since 1899.

Non-musical interests include the beach, cats, and the Oxford comma. She is reading her way through all of the Pulitzer Prize winning novels and tweets obnoxiously during March Madness while she roots feverishly for UConn basketball. Kim continues to maintain her private voice and piano studio through the wonders of technology.

For more information, visit her website at www.kimberlysoby.com.