Susan Larson, Voice/ YMES

Susan (Craft) Larson (BM, MM in Vocal Performance, University of Wisconsin) has been a Yamaha instructor for twelve years and is an Education Specialist for the Yamaha Music Education System.  She is a licensed K-12 music educator in Massachusetts and a teaching artist with the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s Urban Voices program, delivering integrated vocal music instruction to urban schools without adequate funding for music programs.

Susan frequently combines her education and performing experience to present outreach concerts for children, and mentors high school and community performing groups to do the same. She is the former Education Coordinator for the Cantata Singers.  Susan appears as a soloist with many area orchestras, choruses and opera companies and is on the voice faculty at the Middlesex School in Concord. 

Lindsay Rinaldi - Voice
Lindsay is an active performer and educator originally from New Hampshire.  Lindsay began to pursue the art of singing in high school and quickly fell in love with classical music.  

Lindsay can be found performing throughout New England on the operatic stage.  Recent operatic engagements include Così Fan Tutte with Riverside Theater Works, Trial By Jury and Die Fledermaus with Friends of the Performing Arts Concord, MA, and The Magic Flute with Metrowest Opera.  

Lindsay also has great enthusiasm for Jazz, Musical Theater and Contemporary vocal styles.  After performing in Marvin Hamlisch’s A Chorus Line and Cole Porter’s Anything Goes she became fascinated with the technique of “belting” and has dedicated a significant amount of time and study to learning how to train a generation of “healthy belters”.

Before coming to Boston to complete her Masters in Opera Performance at The Longy School of Music, Lindsay studied and performed in Milan, Italy at the Accademia Internazionale della Musica,  L’Università Cattolica and Scuola Politecnica di Design.  Lindsay holds a Bachelors of Music in Music Performance from the University of Maine, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude with High Honors.

Jihye Kim - YMES/ Voice/ Piano/ Violin

Boston-based vocalist and composer Jihye Kim‘s (pronounced “jee-hey”) outstanding abilities as a soloist and improviser have led her to become an in-demand vocalist in both the New York and Boston scenes. Her perfect pitch, three-octave range and advanced sight-singing skill make her equally comfortable in a wide variety of musical settings, from lead vocals in a small group to functioning as part of a horn section in a big band. Jihye’s proficiency with complex and often wordless instrumental music has brought her to the attention of many contemporary composers who are challenging the traditional role of the voice in Jazz.

Growing up in Toronto, Canada, Jihye completed her undergraduate music studies at Humber College where she was awarded the CARAS Award for Outstanding Achievement, and the Thomas Kehoe Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement. While in Toronto, Jihye performed at the 2008 IAJE conference with the Humber College Vocal Ensemble. Jihye moved to New York in 2008 for graduate studies at the Manhattan School of Music, and went on to study at the New England Conservatory in Boston for the degree of Master of Music, from which she graduated in 2011 with Academic Honors. At NEC, Jihye was the recipient of the Helen C. Powell scholarship.

Jihye has studied with Fred Hersch, Theo Bleckmann, Kate McGarry, Shannon Gunn, Dominique Eade, and Jerry Bergonzi. She has shared the stage with musicians such as Dave Douglas, Kurt Elling, Matana Roberts, Jeff Parker and Dave Liebman. Jihye has also attended the summer workshop at the Banff Centre for Creative Arts in Banff, Alberta where she studied with Dave Douglas, Donny McCaslin, Darcy James Argue and Clarence Penn.

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