About Kim
Soprano, pianist, and teacher Kimberly Soby brings joy to concert halls and classrooms alike, passionately using her vast experience to promote music for new generations of performers and music lovers.
Teaching experience includes appointments at Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Florida, where she was an Adjunct Professor in Voice, and at New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida, a magnet arts high school and college conservatory affiliated with both Miami Dade College and the University of Florida; at New World, 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 has been Instructor of Record for Music Fundamentals and Ear Training, the Undergraduate Music Theory Sequence (Harmony I-IV), First Year Writing Studio through the English department, and Feminism and the Arts through the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Area.
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 earned her Bachelor of Music Degree Magna Cum Laude in Vocal Performance at the University of Connecticut, and holds dual Master of Music Degrees with Academic Honors in Vocal Performance and Opera Studies from New England Conservatory. She was the sole recipient of the latter degree in 2010 and as a part of this degree program, she was hired as an Opera Fellow of the now-defunct Opera Boston. While a fellow, she covered and performed an array of challenging, non-traditional repertoire. A new music specialist, she can be heard on recordings released by Naxos, Albany Records, and Centaur Records.
Returning to her home state of Connecticut, Kim is a Ph.D. candidate in Music Theory and History at the University of Connecticut, with additional studies in the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies area. Her dissertation, entitled “Can Sound Wear Tweeds? Exploring Gender Through Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers” examines whether sound has gender and if listeners perceive gendered characteristics in musical compositions.
She has presented at the Association for Literary Critics, Scholars, and Writers, the National Opera Association, and the Fourth International Conference on Women’s Work in Music. With her collaborator, performer, musicologist, and arts advocate Shannon Rose McAuliffe, she has presented at Feminist Theory & Music, College Music Society, and the National Opera Association. Her research can also be heard on SMT-Pod Season 2, where she discusses gendered settings of Chamisso’s Frauenliebe und -leben.
Non-musical interests include the beach, cats, and the Oxford comma. She is obnoxious during March Madness while she roots feverishly for UConn basketball and continues to maintain her private voice and piano studio through the wonders of technology
Formal Education
Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance
University of Connecticut
August 2003 - May 2007
New England Scholar
Magna Cum Laude
Master of Music in Vocal Performance
New England Conservatory of Music
September 2007 - May 2009
Academic Honors
Master of Music in Opera Studies
New England Conservatory of Music
September 2009 - May 2010
Academic Honors
Sole Recipient
Ph.D. in Music Theory and History
University of Connecticut
August 2020 - anticipated May 2025
Additional courses in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies