Manchester Choral Director spreads passion for music

With a class full of ninth graders, a group of boys singing a cappella, a new women’s choir, two show choirs of more than 45 students each, and a chamber ensemble to instruct, music is a way of life for Robyn Kim, choral director at Manchester High School.

From a young age, Kim has always had a love for the arts and music education. “I knew I loved music, and I knew I had a passion for kids so the combination of the two to me, seemed like the best fit,” she said.

A 1995 graduate of Manchester High School, Kim actively participated in the choral program where she was in Touch of Swing, the all girl’s show choir her sophomore year and Capital Swing, the mixed show choir her junior and senior years. She graduated from Virginia Tech in 1999 with a B.A. in Music Education.

While studying music at Virginia Tech, she was active in two vocal ensembles, The New Virginians and the Meistersingers.

Before returning to her alma mater to teach chorus to 9th and 12th grade students, Kim taught in middle school in Charlotte for one year and in Henrico County at Tuckahoe Middle School for two years.

Her husband, Ho was relocated to Richmond and there was a job opening at MHS. Christi Stanfield, former choral instructor at MHS, moved to Thomas Dale High School to teach and Kim’s mom, who is also a teacher at Manchester, gave her daughter a call to tell Kim about the opportunity.

Since 2002, Kim has taught the ninth-grade mixed choir, Touch of Swing, Madrigals, an intermediate women’s choir and Lance Singers, a women’s choir.

Since last year, after former choral director Susan Kish retired, Kim has taken the task of instructing the mixed show choir “Capital Swing”, the Chamber Ensemble and a boys a cappella group “A Cappella Men”. In addition to Touch of Swing, which she has been teaching for nine years, she also teaches the ninth-grade choir and a new mixed women’s choir called “Women’s Chorale”.

“In my ninth and tenth year, I’ve gotten a whole new shake up of things,” she said.

A year before Kish’s retirement, Kim also taught the ninth grade treble choir at Cosby High School.

She said after Kish retired, she wanted to keep the tradition of excellence in Manchester’s choral program alive. “If I weren’t a perfectionist it would be easier,” she said.

“This has been a program that has represented Manchester well, and so I feel that pressure for it to still happen, so cross our fingers it all works out,” she laughed.

Seeing the bright lights of New York City for the first time is on the list of moments that stand out in Kim’s mind when it comes to trips that the choirs have taken throughout the years. She said since 2004, when she took her first trip there with the students, she has gone back once or twice times a year to visit.

“We took a bus tour while we were there, we performed in a really great theater,” she said. “I think all of those memories will forever be emblazoned because it was the first time I ever went.”

She also enjoyed the opportunity to travel to Disney World with her students who performed on stage at Epcot for the Showstoppers competition program.

Showstoppers, which no longer exists, was the program that Kim herself competed in when she was a student at Manchester. She said those Showstoppers moments are dear to her because she was able to experience them as a student as well as an instructor.

Kim has been married for 10 years to Ho. They have a four-year-old daughter Addisen and an infant son named Walker. She said she might be biased, but according to Kim, Addisen is quite the singer, and loves to come watch the choirs practice. She also started taking dance last year.

“She’s got music in her life. I said to my husband if she chooses to dance, if she chooses to sing or be an actress that would be awesome,” she said, “but I’m certainly not going to push her. I try to introduce it to her without saying, ‘oh you’re going to love this’ so it can really become something she does love.”

Having a vast amount of instructors in the time span of her education and career in music, four in particular stand out to Kim as mentors who have helped her get to where she is today in her career.

Her eighth-grade chorus teacher at Providence Middle School Mrs. Mercer; then Ms. Nun had an impact on her growing passion for music. Kim said she saw how passionate Mercer was in teaching the craft of music and that geared her toward wanting to pursue it as a career. Dr. Fenton, her Meistersingers instructor at Virginia Tech is also on her list. Kim said Fenton was only at VT for five years, and he was her instructor for four of those years.

“I got my conducting style from him because I thought he was so fantastic at what he did,” she said.

The Meistersingers went on a trip to Europe with Fenton to perform in numerous cathedrals.

Susan Kish, who Kim referred to as the matriarch of Manchester’s choral program, provided her with leadership skills.

“She gave me solo opportunities that made me more confident and comfortable in my craft,” Kim said.

Kim said she enjoys teaching music so that her students will see how passionate she is about it, and will develop a passion of their own even if it isn’t necessarily for music.

“I hope that in my experience with them they see how much I love it and they will recognize that we should all be passionate about something,” she said. “I love the music and the competition, but it’s not my favorite. My favorite thing is the kids.”