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Vocalist. Music Anthologist. Fulbrighter.

A Voice Professor Researched Eastern European Repertoire in Post-Soviet Lithuania

By Texas Christian University

Professor of Voice and Opera San-ky Kim, DMA, knew what he wanted to do: research Eastern European repertoire in Lithuania and build an anthology of songs forgotten or unknown to the Western world. But he didn’t know the path to get there.

“I needed a whole year for this research, and my sponsor institution in Lithuania also wanted me to do a yearlong residency,” he remembered.

After exploring a number of international support opportunities, Kim found a match in the Fulbright Program, which offered nine months of grant funding that he extended by another three months.

“Fulbright looked at whether I had a viable project that was supported by my host institution and if my research could also benefit my home institution once I returned,” he said. The Fulbright committee determined that his research did, so Kim packed his bags and headed east.

San-ky Kim gives a TEDx talk at his Fulbright program host institution, Vytautas Magnus University, about the importance of nonverbal communication through music, gestures and even breathing.

Ties to the East

At the beginning of his singing career, Kim spent several years living and performing in Eastern Europe at a time of great change for the region. In the 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, nearby Lithuania reclaimed its independence from communist rule. Kim began exploring the cultural landscape amid that dynamic environment.

“Colleagues in European opera theaters talk about the canon of classical music as being German, French and Italian,” said Kim. “But then we discovered there was more: Russian, Czech, Polish and Lithuanian. Nobody really knew much about those musical traditions until the Soviet Union’s dissolution.”

Kim said that revelation inspired him to learn more about the Baltic states, including Lithuania, which is home to one of the world’s oldest languages.

“Like with its music, Lithuania has a storied literary history, but the geopolitical climate overshadowed it for so long,” he said.

The Church of St. Michael the Archangel, a Roman Catholic church, is part of the view Kim enjoyed from his residence in Kaunas, Lithuania. The structure was built in the 1980s as a Russian orthodox church to commemorate Tsar Nicholas II’s coronation.

In 2015, Kim traveled to Kaunas, Lithuania, to research music for “The Lithuanian Song Anthology” at the Music Academy at Vytautas Magnus University. Working with his Lithuanian colleagues, Kim selected 24 compositions ranging from easy to elaborate. Then, he developed literal and poetic translations and included pronunciation guidance using the International Phonetic Alphabet to make the Lithuanian music more approachable for English speakers.

“We had been neglecting Lithuanian culture in the West because we didn’t have any contact with them for so long,” said Kim. “My English-speaking colleagues and I were eager to perform this kind of repertoire.”

Life in Lithuania

In addition to curating the song anthology, Kim performed around the region, taught American song literature to 12 voice students, advised teaching colleagues on English language repertoire, and traveled to many countries. He even temporarily relocated his family to be with him.

Kim and his daughter make the daily commute to her kindergarten class in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Kim (right), with his wife and their daughter, visit the Baltic Sea, which borders Lithuania’s western edge.

Kim and his family celebrate Christmas in Lithuania, where 93 percent of residents are Christians.

“Fulbright encourages its scholars to travel and even provides support for expenses,” Kim said.

He worked with teachers and performers around Lithuania and in the Czech Republic, Poland, Estonia and Russia to test songs for the anthology before publishing the full collection.

“Almost every weekend, I traveled to different schools to meet with the music teachers. I would also perform solos or sing with colleagues or other local musicians.”

He said getting to know the people of Eastern Europe was essential to his research.

“Socializing and networking was more important than sitting in the library to research manuscripts for the anthology,” he said. “The people around me were helpful in pointing me to resources and opening doors so I could do my work.”

Kim noted that some cultural differences between the United States and Lithuania made it even easier for him to connect with those around him, including the prominence of public transportation and mealtime customs.

“Their lunch is a very important time to mingle,” Kim noted. “Everyone goes out for lunch to a cafeteria or restaurant. It is done communally, so people can get to know each other.”

Kim (back row, center) spends time backstage at a performance with students in his opera studio class.

“Fulbright encourages its scholars to travel.”

An American in Europe

As an intermediate Lithuanian speaker, Kim said he occasionally made grammatical mistakes, which sometimes happened in public settings. He performed on the national Lithuanian show “Duokim Garo!” and appeared in a front-page story of the newspaper “Lietuvos žinios” to talk about his Fulbright year and his research for the anthology.

“I look back and think, ‘Oh, no! I should have used a different tense when I said that,’” Kim recalled. “But the people were really gracious and enthusiastic about my research.”

Kim appeared on the front page of the newspaper “Lietuvos žinios” in a story about his Fulbright year in Lithuania and how he earned a Lithuanian language certificate.

The TCU Horned Frogs win against the Minnesota Gophers in the 2015 season. The football game aired on television at a bar Kim visited in Lithuania.

While Kim was far from his home in Fort Worth, Texas, TCU wasn’t far from Lithuania. In a country known for another type of football, a Horned Frogs American football game was shown on TV at a bar Kim visited in fall 2015.

“It was such a funny thing to see a TCU football game being aired in Lithuania!” he recalled fondly.

Now and Then

Apart from his work on “The Lithuanian Song Anthology,” Kim said the most impactful part of his Fulbright experience was seeing how Lithuania had evolved since the 1990s.

“The opportunity to witness how the Lithuanian people—who went through a really drastic transformation in their lifetime—adapted to those changes was incredible,” Kim noted.

“When I first met some of these people, they were afraid of being trailblazers after living in communism for so long. Not only did they break down the Soviet system, but they joined the EU. They also joined the eurozone and accepted the Euro as their currency, which was a big deal for their economy.”

Upon his return to the United States, Kim helped expand his voice students’ repertoire with “The Lithuanian Song Anthology”.

“I broke away from just teaching Western classical music,” he said. “Incorporating Eastern European concert traditions and other cultural customs helps contribute to our students’ diverse worldview, which is an important aspect of TCU’s diversity, equity and inclusion work. And Fulbright’s funding and support made that possible.”

Texas Senator John Cornyn wrote to Kim personally to recognize the significance of his participation in the Fulbright Program.

“Incorporating Eastern European concert traditions and other cultural customs helps contribute to our students’ diverse worldview.”

Footnotes

Photos and videos provided by San-ky Kim.

FootNotes

Photos and videos provided by San-ky Kim.

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