Soojin Kim Ritterling
Voice / Music Education
240 Center for the Arts
(608)785-8417
sritterling@uwlax.edu
BIOGRAPHY:
Dr. Soojin Kim Ritterling is an Associate Professor
of Music Education at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
where she teaches general music methods classes in music
education and supervises field experience. An applied vocal
instructor, she also directs the UW-L Korean Percussion
Ensemble and Women's
Samulnori Ensemble.
Prior
to joining the faculty at UW-L in 2000, Dr. Ritterling taught
"Music Play" program (for children from birth to age four) at
the University of Southern Mississippi. She received a BM and MM
in music education from the Korea National University of
Education, and Ph.D. in music education from the University of
Southern Mississippi. Her dissertation investigated the
influence of sequential movement activities on young student's
singing abilities.
She
previously taught general music classes, and served as a choir
and band director in public schools in Korea. Besides teaching
music, she has been involved in various musical fields. She has
performed vocal recitals and choir concerts and served as an
appointed referee for the weekly children's song contest of
Korean Broadcasting System in Korea.
A
Fulbright Senior Scholar to South Korea from 2009 to 2010, her
research interest focuses on the Korean traditional percussion
music and incorporating Korean folk music into multicultural
education fields. She is a Korean folk music enthusiast, having
played traditional Korean instruments such as the
gayageum (a 12-strined instrument),
janggu (an hourglass-shaped drum),
kkwaenggwari (a small gong),
jing (a large gong), and
buk (barrel drum). She
has presented Korean music in state and national conferences
such as in National Symposium on Multicultural Music and Music
Educators' National Conference.
She
is a contributing author for the Korean music units in the
Spotlight on Music textbook series by MacMillan/McGraw-Hill and in the
Kaleidoscope of Cultures, the recent publication by MENC and
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. As a former chair for
Multicultural Education of the Wisconsin Music Educators
Association, she
has written
articles on music and movement development in preschool and
elementary levels and multicultural music education as a
columnist for the
Wisconsin Music Teacher.
Her
professional
affiliations include
NAfME: The National Association for
Music Education, Wisconsin Music Educators
Association,
College Music Society, The
Gordon Institute for Music Learning, and National Association of
Teachers of Singing.
