April Ryun Kim, a native of Minnesota, is Associate Professor of Practice in Music at St. Olaf College, where she teaches applied piano, group piano, keyboard pedagogy, and coaches chamber music. Passionate about music education, she has served frequently as an adjudicator for competitions such as the Iowa MTNA Performance Competitions, the 2019 Minnesota MTNA Piano Performance Competition, and the MMTA Preliminary Round Competitions. Her teaching experience also includes the St. Olaf Summer Music Academy, Lutheran Summer Music Academy and Festival, the Arkansas and Oklahoma (AOK) Conservatory of Music, and the Coda Music Academy Summer Music Festival.

Dr. Kim maintains an active performing career as a soloist, collaborative pianist, and chamber musician, presenting a wide range of repertoire. She has been featured in the “Rhapsody and the Blues” Tour with trumpeter Jens Lindemann, performing Matt Catingub’s arrangement of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and has appeared as a guest soloist with the St. Olaf Band, in the MasterWorks Festival Honors Recital, and with the St. Olaf Orchestra as a senior soloist. She is a prizewinner in competitions including Thursday Musical and Schubert Club. As a collaborative artist, she has performed with musicians such as Micah Wilkinson (principal trumpet, Pittsburgh Symphony), mezzo-soprano Katherine Rohrer, baritone Emery Stephens, percussionist Eri Isomura, and pianist William Chapman Nyaho. Her collaborations also include True Witness: A Civil Rights Cantata by Jodi Globe, performed with the St. Olaf Cantorei, Manitou Singers, and featured soloists.

A committed advocate for new music, Dr. Kim frequently performs works by living composers. She has appeared with Musica Nova at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, collaborating with Zhou Long and Tania León, and with the St. Olaf Faculty Chamber Ensemble in performances of Ann Milikan’s music. She is also a pianist with 10th Wave Chamber Collective, a Twin Cities-based ensemble dedicated to contemporary repertoire by composers such as Missy Mazzoli, David Lang, Jiyoun Chung, and Kenji Bunch.

Her conference and festival appearances include the College Music Society (regional and international), MTNA Collegiate Chapters Symposiums, the International Music by Women Festival (2019, 2022), the Composition in Asia Symposium and Festival (3rd and 4th), MMTA Conventions, and the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy (2021, 2023, 2025). She is also the director of the Korean Composers Festival.

Dr. Kim holds a DMA in Piano Performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, an MM in Piano Performance and Collaborative Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a BM in Piano Performance (Collaborative Emphasis) from St. Olaf College. Her principal teachers include Diane Helfers Petrella, Kathryn Brown, Anita Pontremoli, and Kent McWilliams.