Soyoung Ryoo

An accomplished piano instructor with twenty years of teaching experience, Soyoung Ryoo has taught students of all ages and levels, in college 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 Ms. Ryoo 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.

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 won a prize in the national Teenager Piano Competition and a Merit Scholarship at Yonsei University in 1993. She has given solo recitals and performed in ensembles in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Switzerland and South Korea. She has a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from Yonsei University and a Master of Music degree and a Graduate Performance Diploma in Piano Performance from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. 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, and also maintains her private studio in Baltimore. 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, the Sunhwa Arts School in South Korea and a Music School teacher at Bryn Mawr School. She also is a member of the Music Teachers National Association and the Maryland State Music Teachers Association. She resides in Baltimore with her husband, Michael Nguyen, a digital media professional, their daughter, Julia and son, Jacob.

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