BU School of Music welcomes three new full-time assistant professors
BU School of Music welcomes three new full-time assistant professors
Assistant Professors Minju Kim (violin), Daniel Parsley (choral conducting), and Alison Trainer (voice) join the esteemed faculty of Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Music, beginning Fall 2023.
Boston University School of Music, the oldest degree-granting music school in the nation, is pleased to announce the appointment of three new assistant professors joining their faculty this Fall 2023 semester: Minju Kim (violin), Daniel Parsley (choral conducting), and Alison Trainer (voice). Get to know the newest BU School of Music faculty members!
MINJU KIM
Assistant Professor of Music, Violin
As a violinist and an educator, Dr. Minju Kim leads a multifaceted career spanning education, performance, and social advocacy. With a genuine commitment to education and to musical excellence, she continues to cultivate a career in both teaching and performing by fostering the growth of aspiring musicians while maintaining an active presence on the concert stage.
Kim is the new Assistant Professor of Violin at the Boston University School of Music starting in Fall 2023. She has held esteemed faculty positions at institutions such as the Cleveland Institute of Music Preparatory Program and was previously the Chair of the String Area and Assistant Professor of Violin and Viola at the University of Akron School of Music. Kim’s past experiences include teaching at institutions such as the Festival del Lago International Academy of Music, Encore Chamber Music, Community Music School at Oberlin College, IU Summer String Academy, and as an Assistant Instructor at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and masterclasses at Fredonia SUNY, University of Montreal, Portland State University, University of Texas San Antonio, Drake University, Ohio University, Miami University, and others.
Kim’s pedagogical experience also extends beyond traditional settings, as she has worked with programs such as Habitat4Music and Fairview Violin Project, providing extracurricular music education programs to underperforming or underfunded public schools.
Her music philosophy emphasizes the transformative power of music and its ability to connect communities. Combining her passion for arts education and social advocacy, Kim founded and directs the Third Culture Ensemble. This initiative unites professional musicians, music students, and local arts and social organizations to use music as a means of serving diverse communities. The ensemble’s commitment to programming diverse repertoire as well as highlighting social issues such as homelessness and incarceration reflects Kim’s vision of reshaping the social role of classical music, broadening the concert experience, amplifying the voices of underrepresented composers, and promoting unity and inclusivity.
DANIEL PARSLEY
Assistant Professor of Music, Choral Conducting & Director of Choral Activities
Dr. Daniel Parsley enjoys an active career as a conductor, educator, scholar, and professional chorister. Parsley is the Director of Choral Activities and Director of Graduate Conducting Programs at the historic School of Music at Boston University, the oldest degree-granting music program in the United States. At BU, Parsley oversees the comprehensive MM, MSM, and DMA conducting programs, teaches graduate conducting and choral literature, and leads the BU Singers and Symphonic Choir.
Parsley was most recently the Director of Choral Activities and Program Head at Thomas More University in the Cincinnati area. At Thomas More, he founded and directed three choruses that included over 125 singers and taught music history and music theory. While in Cincinnati, he also served as associate director for the Cincinnati Youth Choir, Ensemble-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
Since 2019, Parsley has served as associate conductor of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra (CCO). At the CCO, he leads the We Are One series, special events such as the Walk with Amal project, and assists with an annual Summermusik festival.
In 2023, Parsley will make his guest conductor debut with the Portland Symphony Orchestra and Coro Volante. Most recently, Parsley was the assistant conductor and choral conducting fellow for the Cincinnati May Festival, where he prepared choruses for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops. Parsley’s passion for choral arts extends beyond conducting: He has performed with many choruses as a professional singer, including the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, Cincinnati May Festival Chorus and Youth Chorus, Toledo Opera, Tuscia Opera Festival (Viterbo, Italy), and Berkshire Choral Festival.
“I am elated to join the esteemed faculty at this historic institution that is so important to the vibrant Boston community. I am most excited to teach the amazing Boston University student body as we prepare them to launch into the next stage of their professional and artistic journeys.“ -Daniel Parsley
ALISON TRAINER
Assistant Professor of Music, Voice
Internationally acclaimed coloratura soprano Dr. Alison Trainer is a gifted singing actress, who has garnered top prizes in major vocal competitions and performed with opera companies, symphony orchestras, and on recital stages across the United States and Europe. She continues to gain recognition for her vocal beauty, sensitive and intelligent musicianship, and compelling stage presence.
Between 2009-2017, Trainer debuted many of her signature roles in Europe, such as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Fiakermilli in Arabella, Gilda in Rigoletto, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Adele in Die Fledermaus, Oscar in Un ballo in maschera, Lisa in Gräfin Mariza, and Walther in La Wally. For her portrayal of Fiakermili in Arabella, the St. Galler Nachrichten raved, “Completely amazing were the vocal acrobatics of Fiakermilli, sung by Alison Trainer with virtuosic and sparkling coloratura.” The Zürcher Zeitung declared that her performance as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos was “riveting” and displayed “world-class coloratura.”
Before beginning her European career, Trainer performed as a soloist with New York City Opera, New Jersey Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Tulsa Opera, San Francisco Opera, Asheville Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Erie Philharmonic, Pennsylvania Symphony & Ballet, Sinfonie St. Gallen, and the National Chorale in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Both the New York Times and the Colorado Times have named Trainer “An artist to watch,” and Opera News raved that she was “Extremely sexy, with a lovely, clear voice,” in Die Zauberflöte.
An avid recitalist with a passion for innovative programming, Alison has performed in recital at the Tanglewood Music Festival, the Cleveland Art Song Festival, the Warebrook Contemporary Music Festival, San Francisco Opera Center’s prestigious Schwabacher Recital Series, Glimmerglass Opera, Josyln Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, Trinity Church on Wall Street, and the Southeastern Festival of Song.
BU School of Music has also appointed two lecturers.
Andrius Žlabys
Lecturer in Piano
Grammy-nominated pianist Andrius Žlabys has received international acclaim for his appearances with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including The New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Rotterdam Symphony, and Philharmonic Orchestra of Buenos Aires. He joined the Boston University keyboard faculty in Fall 2021. Born in Lithuania and trained at the Curtis Institute of Music, Žlabys was 18 years old when the Chicago Tribune wrote: “Pianist-composer Andrius Žlabys is one of the most gifted young keyboard artists to emerge in years.”
Hazel Dean Davis
Lecturer in Horn
Hazel Dean Davis is an in-demand orchestral, chamber, and Broadway hornist living in Arlington, Massachusetts. She played the solo horn chair in the revival of 1776 on Broadway in New York City in 2022-2023 and on the national tour in 2023, and is a longtime member of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra in Boston. From 2004-2015, Davis was a tenured member of the Virginia Symphony and Opera. Now she freelances throughout New England and beyond, performing frequently with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Pops, Portland Symphony, the Boston Ballet, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the conductor-less chamber orchestra A Far Cry.
Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Music
Founded in 1872, the School of Music combines the intimacy and intensity of traditional conservatory-style training with a broad liberal arts education at the undergraduate level, and elective coursework at the graduate level. The school offers degrees in performance, conducting, composition and theory, musicology, music education, and historical performance, as well as Artist and Performance diplomas and a certificate program in its Opera Institute.
In this community of focused musicians, educators, scholars, and artists at BU School of Music, students learn from experienced faculty including members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, published educators from specialized music fields, and today’s composers, conductors, and musicians.