Youngeun Kim, a native of South Korea, is a third-year doctoral student in choral conducting at the University of Arizona. Currently, she is the music director at First United Methodist Church and the assistant conductor at Tucson Masterworks Chorale.

Youngeun was selected by audition as one of four conductors for the 2025 ACDA National Conference Conducting Masterclass. At the same conference, she also presented at a poster session titled From Oppression to Expression: Exploring Colonial-Era Poetry in Korean Choral Works.

Her scholarly work includes a published review of Blue Bird by Jungsun Lee in the Choral Journal (May 2024). She was also invited as a guest lecturer at the University of Arizona Choral Literature Intensive in both 2024 and 2025, presenting on Korean female composer Hyo-won Woo in 2024 and on Hye-young Cho in 2025.

In 2025, she received a fellowship to attend the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival–Yale Summer School of Music Choral Conducting Workshop and was accepted into the Cascade Conducting Choral Masterclass with Dr. Geoffrey Boers. She was also awarded the Medici Scholarship in both 2024 and 2025, the Graduate College Fellowship in 2025, and several other scholarships.

Youngeun holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Ewha Woman’s University in South Korea, where she also earned a Master of Music in Choral Conducting. She later received a second Master of Music in Choral Conducting from the University of Louisville.