Sunny Kim is a Korean-born vocalist, improvisor, composer and educator based in Australia. Drawing from her life journey as a global nomad - Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Denver, Boston, New York and now Melbourne - Sunny's artistic practice seeks to find meaningful connections to people, culture and place through a dedication to deep listening, collaboration and self-discovery.

A two-time winner of Jazz People Magazine's Reader's Poll Award in the Best Vocalist catetory (2012, 2013) and the recipient of the LIG Artist grant (2011), Sunny Kim has released five albums as a leader, Android Ascension (2008), Painter's Eye (2012), The Shining Sea: Live at the Olympus Hall (2014), The Dream of the Earth (2016), and Tribute (2019), three of which have been nominated for the Korean Music Awards in the Best Jazz Record category. Sunny has recorded as a featured vocalist on numerous records such as After Dark (Prana Trio, 2005), White With Foam (MadLove, 2009), and Keep Your Heart Right (Roswell Rudd Quartet, 2007).

After completing her studies in jazz under the mentorship of Bob Moses, Jerry Bergonzi, Dominique Eade, Charlie Banacos and Frank Carlberg at the New England Conservatory in Boston, Sunny went on to work closely with hundreds of artists from all over the world including luminaries such as Roswell Rudd, Ben Monder, Trevor Dunn, Min Xiao Fen, Pheeroan Aklaff, and Gino Sitson. She had toured internationally and has performed at the Carnegie Hall, Newport Jazz Festival (USA), Taichung Jazz Festival (Taiwan), ATP Festival (UK), Piacenza Jazz Festival (Italy), Jarasum Jazz Festival, Yeosu Expo (Korea) and the Arts Centre Melbourne (Australia).

Sunny has received grants from the Korea Arts Council for various interdisciplinary projects with poets, dancers and visual artists including large-scale performances, Act of Resolution (2011) and Diaspora (2012), with the contemporary dance company Mooe. Her composition "Everywhere" has been featured in the soundtrack of the film Late Autumn (2010) by director Kim Tae-yong.

As an educator, Sunny has facilitated hundreds of developing musicians from diverse backgrounds to find their creative voice through cultivation of intuition, body awareness and collaborative skills. Since 2007, Sunny has lectured at Hanyang Univeristy, Seoul Institute of the Arts, Soongshil University and Dankuk University (Korea) and has led workshops at the Creative Music Intensive (Australia) as well as the Indigenous Songwriting Workshop at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (Canada). A former Assistant Professor at Dong-Ah Institute for Media and Arts, Sunny currently lectures at the University of Melbourne in Jazz and Improvisation. Invited by the Australian Music Centre, Sunny delivered the Peggy Glanville-Hicks address in 2020.

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Sunny Kim

Lecturer in Music (Jazz and Improvisation)

Melbourne Conservatorium of Music

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Sunny Kim

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Faculty of Fine Arts and Music

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Jazz

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Sunny Kim

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