Dr. Bo Young Kang Biography

Bo Young Kang is a choral and orchestral conductor. She has been appointed Music Director at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Austin, Texas, and will begin her position in September 2026. In May 2026, she completed her second master’s degree in Orchestral Conducting at Bowling Green State University.

Prior to her orchestral conducting studies, she served as Director of Choral Activities at Bluffton University, where she conducted the Camerata Singers, University Chorale, and Choral Society, and taught other music courses.

Dr. Kang conducted the Black Swamp Community Orchestra during the spring and fall 2023 seasons. As a singer, she was a member of the Vocal Arts Ensemble in Cincinnati, led by Craig Hella Johnson.

She has served as director of various choral ensembles, including Vox Beata, Collegium Musicum, and the UT Summer Choral Society at the University of Texas; Global Singers, The Twelve, and the Korean Church Music Choir in State College, Pennsylvania; and numerous church choirs in Pennsylvania, Texas, and South Korea.

She was selected as a conducting fellow for distinguished music programs, including the Miami Music Festival Conducting Institute, the Chicago Conducting Masterclass & Workshop Series, the Norfolk Yale Chamber Music Festival, the Eastman Summer Masterworks Masterclass, and the Choral-Orchestral Conducting Masterclass of Chorus America. Additionally, she has participated in conducting masterclasses with Mark Gibson, Donald Schleicher, Simon Carrington, Vance George, Jerry Blackstone, William Weinert, Jo-Michael Scheibe, Julie Skadsem, David Hayes, Jacques Lacombe, Miriam Burns, Mark Shapiro, and Susan Medley. Her primary conducting teachers include Emily Freeman Brown, James Morrow, Lynn Drafall, and Christopher Kiver.

She earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied with Dr. James Morrow. At UT Austin, she served as Director of the University Chorus. As a teaching assistant in the Butler School of Music, she was Assistant Director of the Chamber Singers and Concert Chorale, as well as Assistant Director of the Bach Cantata Project. In addition, she served as Teaching Assistant for Graduate Choral Literature and Undergraduate Choral Conducting.

Bo Young Kang received the Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from SookMyung Women’s University in South Korea and the Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from Pennsylvania State University, where she was Teaching Assistant and Assistant Conductor of the Concert Choir, Oriana Singers, and University Choir under the direction of Dr. Lynn Drafall and Dr. Anthony Leach.