Kim Sopata

Summer Flute Institute Guest Faculty

Kim Sopata has been heard on commercials, radio, film, and on several recordings. As a symphony musician, she has performed with  the Charlotte, Milwaukee and Elgin Symphony Orchestras,  the Illinois Philharmonic, the CUBE Ensemble, among many others. She has appeared as soloist with the the South Carolina Philharmonic, New Millennium Orchestra, Colorado Springs Youth Symphony, and the Millennium Chamber Players. In 2003 she won first prize in the Chicago Flute Clubs Orchestra Excerpts Competition. A dedicated chamber musician, she performs with guitarists, harpists, string players, and The Sapphire Winds Woodwind Quintet.
 

She began her studies in England with Gavin Tate and went on to study with Dr. Pamela Jackson Youngblood and Milwaukee Symphony's principal flutist, Jeani Foster. She received her Bachelor's Degree in Flute Performance with honors from Northwestern University, where she studied with Chicago Symphony Orchestra musicians Walfrid Kujala and Richard Graef. She has performed in masterclasses with Paula Robison, Jim Walker, Carol Wincenc, Keith Underwood, Marco Granados, Jeanne Baxtresser, Amy Porter, Tadeau Coelho, and Robert Langevin, among others.
 

Ms. Sopata has always had a fascination with music traditions of other cultures. She spent two years in Central Asia (Turkmenistan and Kazakstan), and went on to pursue a M.A. in Ethnomusicology with an emphasis in Middle Eastern Music from Bethel University. (St. Paul, MN), and has studied the Egyptian Nay with Dr. Ali Jihad Racy, Basaam Saba, Naeif Rafeh and Dr. Scott Marcus, and the darbukah with Najib Bahri and Karim Nagi. She has performed with the Chicago Classical Oriental Ensemble and Il Bulbul Ensemble across the U.S. at venues such as the The Kennedy Center, White House, The U.N. Building, NYC's Symphony Space, Chicago's Symphony Center, and before HRH Queen Rania of Jordan.
 

Ms. Sopata is professor of flute at Trinity Christian College and on faculty at University of Wisconsin Whitewater Summer Flute Camp. She maintains a large private studio in Evanston. She is a frequent adjudicator for flute competitions in the area and has contributed articles to Flute Talk Magazine and The Pipeline, and has served on the board of the Chicago Flute Club.