FREE Courtroom Concert: featuring Immanuel Davis, Flute; Christine Soojin Kim, Oboe; Sang Yoon Kim, Clarinet; Fei Xie, Bassoon

Flutist Immanuel Davis is a highly versatile performer who enjoys playing the entire span of the flute repertoire. He has performed as a recitalist and master class teacher worldwide. He has appeared as a recitalist and chamber musician at Weill Recital hall at Carnegie Hall, MoMa’s Summer Garden Series, Noonday Concerts at Trinity Church, and the “Meet the Virtuoso” series at the 92nd St Y. Orchestral work has included performances with the Minnesota Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, Riverside Symphony, Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Jupiter Symphony, and Buffalo Philharmonic and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Davis has also played on Broadway in Fiddler on the Roof, Show Boat and Ragtime, among others.

In 2005, Immanuel was a recipient of a Fulbright Grant for study of baroque flute and performance practice with Wilbert Hazelzet at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague. Since then he has performed as soloist and chamber player with such early music ensembles as Early Music New York, ARTEK, Lyra Baroque and the Bach Society of Minnesota, Mercury Orchestra, and Rebel. He has also been heard on NPR’s “Performance Today” and in numerous recitals with Barthold Kuijken and Wilbert Hazelzet.

A popular guest teacher, he has been invited to teach classes at Yale University, New England Conservatory, Grinell College, the North Carolina School of the Arts and Seattle Pacific University and several times for the National Flute Association Conventions. He has made multiple trips to Mexico, where he has served as woodwind clinician for the Guanajuato Symphony Orchestra. He has also given several classes for the U.S. Air Force Bands in Sacramento and Colorado Springs, and has performed and given clinics for the National Flute Convention.

Educated at the Juilliard School, Mr. Davis received both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees as a student of Julius Baker. Immanuel Davis has been the flute professor at the University of Minnesota since 2001. In June 2013, Immanuel completed the 3-year training to become an AmSat Certified teacher of the Alexander Technique.

Christine Soojin Kim is an oboist and educator, serving as Principal Oboe of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and leading the oboe studio at the University of Minnesota. She has been praised for her “lovely yet powerful playing” and her “delightful and excellent solos.

Born in the United States and raised in South Korea, Kim made her concerto debut at the age of fourteen and has performed as a soloist with ensembles including the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra, Yongin Youth Orchestra, Bundang Youth Orchestra, and the Seoul National University Orchestra.

She has held principal oboe positions with the Sarasota Orchestra and the Des Moines Metro Opera, and has appeared as a guest musician with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Minnesota Opera, New World Symphony, The Florida Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony, and the Korean Symphony Orchestra. Kim has also completed a one‑year position with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and served as Acting Assistant Principal Oboe of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

Kim earned her Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory, where she studied with John Ferrillo and Anne Gabriele, an Artist Diploma from the Colburn School under Allan Vogel, and a Bachelor of Music from Seoul National University.

Sang Yoon Kim (b. 1987) is Principal Clarinet of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the top prize winner of the 67th Prague Spring International Music Competition (2015), where he was also awarded the Contemporary piece Prize. He gained international recognition following his appearance as a soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo at the Prague Spring International Music Festival.

A laureate of several major international competitions, Kim won First Prize at the Jacques Lancelot International Clarinet Competition. At the UNISA International Flute and Clarinet Competition, he received First Prize as well as the Classical/Baroque Performance Prize and the Contemporary Music Prize. He is also a laureate at the International Clarinet Competition in Ghent.

Recent highlights include his 2025 performance of Carnegie Hall Debut with the Musicians from Marlboro tour as well as Bruch’s Double Concerto with violist Tabea Zimmermann and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

As both soloist and guest principal clarinet, Kim has collaborated with leading orchestras across Europe, North America, Africa, and Asia, including the Cleveland Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Orchestre de l’Opéra de Rouen Haute-Normandie, KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, and numerous national orchestras in South Korea. He has worked with distinguished conductors such as Vladimir Jurowski, Christoph Eschenbach, Franz Welser-Möst, and Jaap van Zweden.

An active chamber musician, Kim has been invited to the Marlboro Music Festival since 2021. He has been invited to Ravinia Music Festival, Sarasota Music Festival, Encore Music Festival, Seoul Art Center International summer Festival…etc.

Deeply committed to education, Kim serves as Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota and was Visiting Associate Professor at Seoul National University in Fall 2025. He regularly presents masterclasses throughout the United States and Asia.

Kim studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, where he became the first Korean clarinetist accepted in the institution’s history. He later earned an Artist Diploma from the Colburn Conservatory of Music under Yehuda Gilad. Sang Yoon Kim is a Buffet Crampon, Vandoren, and Silverstein Performing Artist.

Fei Xie joined the Minnesota Orchestra as principal bassoon at the beginning of the 2017-18 season after serving as principal bassoon of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra—an ensemble he first joined as second bassoonist in 2008. When he won the principal role in 2012, Xie became the first Chinese-born bassoonist to hold such a position in a major American symphony orchestra. He was previously a member of the Houston Grand Opera, principal bassoon of the Mansfield Symphony in Ohio, and has appeared as guest principal bassoon with orchestras such as Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Houston Symphony and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Xie has appeared as soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Festival Mozaic Orchestra and the Sichuan Conservatory Symphony Orchestra in China. He has received the high praise of critics from The Washington Post, Baltimore Sun and Star Tribune. Xie has performed at many summer festivals including Festival Mozaic—where he acts as principal bassoon—and those of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, Tanglewood Music Center, National Repertory Orchestra and Music Academy of the West. In 2010, he was a finalist and prize-winner at the International Double Reed Society’s Gillet-Hugo Fox Competition, where he was the only American bassoonist chosen for the final round.

An avid educator, Xie has taught masterclasses at conservatories and festivals throughout the United States, China and Brazil. He served on the bassoon faculty of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States in 2022 and was the bassoon coach for three years with the National Youth Orchestra of China. While in Brazil, he served as a faculty member of the Campos do Jordão International Music Festival for two seasons; during that time, he performed Kalevi Aho’s Quintet for Bassoon and Strings with the award-winning Quarteto Radamés Gnattali. Back in the United States, he served on the faculty at the University of Maryland until recently, and is now adjunct faculty at the University of Minnesota.

Xie’s recording credits include Gustav Mahler’s major symphonies—a multi-year project by the Minnesota Orchestra. His performance of the Mozart Bassoon Concerto with the Orchestra under then-Music Director Osmo Vänskä was streamed live online for thousands of listeners and is regularly re-broadcast on American Public Media’s Performance Today. In 2020, Xie recorded the Quintet for Bassoon and Strings by composer Michael Fine for Five for Five, a CD recording project of newly-composed chamber music for wind and string quartets.

Since 2021, Xie has taken on the role of artistic consultant for the Minnesota Orchestra’s Lunar New Year celebrations. Beyond introducing Orchestra audiences to Chinese musical traditions and instrumentation, the annual concerts have seen Xie joined onstage by his mother and father—the professional Peking Opera musicians Mei Hu and Zhengang Xie, who are yue qin and jing hu masters, respectively.

Xie, who grew up in the city of Tangshan in the Hebei province of northern China, was introduced by his uncle—a composer himself—to the piano at age three, and later began bassoon studies when he was 13. He now holds a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin Conservatory and a master’s degree from Rice University. His primary teachers and influences are George Sakakeeny and Benjamin Kamins, who served as associate principal bassoon of the Minnesota Orchestra from 1972 to 1981.