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Soyoung Ryoo, piano
A dedicated educator, Soyoung Ryoo has taught piano in colleges and secondary schools as well as in her private studio. Ms. Ryoo’s teaching emphasizes the importance of balancing such core elements as technique, theory, reading and hearing, while at the same time developing the ability to connect with music intellectually and emotionally and ultimately to express the feeling inherent in music. Because she believes that music engages us most powerfully when it communicates, she is devoted to guiding her students to learn how to communicate with themselves and with others through music. Her students participate in competitions and music festivals, and have performed in winner’s concerts at such venues as Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center in New York City and Field Concert Hall at Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, PA.
Ms. Ryoo was born into an educator’s family in South Korea. Her father was a scholar and a professor with degrees from Harvard University (a Master’s and Doctorate in Education), and two of her brothers have followed in his footsteps and are teaching at universities. She began playing piano at five and continued her music studies at prestigious schools and in master classes. She has given solo recitals and performed in ensembles in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Switzerland and South Korea. She has a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from Yonsei University in South Korea and a Master of Music degree and a Graduate Performance Diploma in Piano Performance from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. Her teachers included Boris Slutsky, Bongae Shin, Kyungsook Lee and Myunghye Bang.
Ms. Ryoo is currently a member of the piano faculties of Peabody Preparatory, a Music School teacher at Bryn Mawr School, and also maintains her private studio in Baltimore, MD. She was formerly a member of the piano faculties of Levine School of Music in Washington, D.C., the Korea National University of Education, the University of Suwon and the Sunhwa Arts School in South Korea. She also is a member of the Music Teachers National Association and the Maryland State Music Teachers Association. She resides in Charles Village, Baltimore, with her husband and their two beautiful children.