About

Vocalist Kim Sueoka is passionate about creating musical insights into the human experience. Lauded as “radiant” (Cleveland Classical), she is an active performer of Hawaiian historical music, early music, chamber music, and new compositions. She frequently appears in concert with The Rose Ensemble, Lau Hawaiian Collective, Silver Swan Chamber Ensemble, and with pianists/composers Paul Cantrell and Todd Harper. She has appeared as a soloist with the Neuss Chamber Orchestra, Glorious Revolution Baroque, and the National Lutheran Choir. She has been featured on The Schubert Club’s Music in the Park, Summer Songfest, and Courtroom Concert series; Minnesota Guitar Society’s Local Artist Series; The American Composers Forum’s Sound Check series; and The Owatonna Arts Center Chamber Music Series. Her “crystalline voice” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) can be heard on a growing number of recordings.

Kim is currently a COMPAS Teaching Artist and an Artist-in-Residence at Hamline Univeristy’s Center for Global Environmental Education. She received a Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative grant in 2011 to research, perform, and record a collection of Hawaiian songs on the theme of fresh water, or Wai. She received a McKnight Performing Artist Fellowship finalist award in 2007, and a Minnesota State Arts Board Cultural Community Partnership grant in 2005.

Originally from Koloa, Kaua’i, Kim presently resides in the Twin Cities, where she has developed a great respect for snow shovels and mittens. She earned a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance at the University of Evansville under the instruction of Joseph Hopkins, and completed a Masters degree at the University of Minnesota, where she studied with Lawrence Weller. She studied Hawaiian chant and hula with the late Kumu Pohaku Nishimitsu.