Artistic Director, Kim Kuda
Kim Kuda does far more than select music, conduct rehearsals and direct us during performances.
She also makes sure we're in tune, cares about how we're doing and encourages us to find our highest selves - inside and out of the performance arena.
She connects with other musical groups to expand where we perform, gets us invited to some of the best opportunities around (thank you, Providence Singers for having us perform the opening works to the Considering Matthew Shepard), and increases our visibility (The Rhode Show, The Gamm and more).
Oh ... and she arranges music so it works with our vocal range and makes sense to the musicians who she selects to perform with us.
On top of that, she composes.
This is all done on top of her full-time day job.
And We've All Grown As A Result
We've been led to increase our musicianship,
developed a system for helping each other
(no worry if you can't read music or are new to the choral performance path - we've got you!),
and can even tap a beat while doing a little acting.
She's gotten us into some of the swankiest places (nodding at you, Waterfire Arts Center) and taken seriously what
matters to us.
She lets no performer sing publicly before their time ... so we're concert ready by the time we have that next performance.
And she even has us participating in some of the top international performance experiences - like GALA.
And there's so much more.
Professionally Speaking ...
Kim Kuda joined the RIGMC in 2008 as the Accompanist, became the Assistant Director in 2011, and this marks her 13th year as the Artistic Director.
Fueled by her passion for choral music creation, a particularly rewarding part of Kim’s work is her composition and arrangement of many of the pieces the RIGMC performs each season.
In recent years, the chorus has premiered several of her compositions including Soft Little Sprinkles, Out on the Bay, our unofficial theme song, Imagine and Believe, written in response to the 2016 Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting and reworked
to include the 2022 Club Q nightclub shooting in Colorado, and a holiday tune inspired by a comment overheard from an audience member, It Isn’t Christmas Until the Gay Men Sing. The RIGMC premiered Kim’s newest work, Beyond, in March 2024 at the Providence Singer’s performance of Considering Matthew Shepard.
Kim’s music speaks to the notion that we all bring something different to the table, and as different as we are, we are all the same. It goes without saying that this theme is a perfect parallel to the overall mission of the RIGMC.
Kim has played the piano professionally since 1975 and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with emphasis in Music Theory and Composition from Rhode Island College; prior to that, she studied Communications and Theatre at Miami University of Ohio.
With an impressive résumé that includes musical direction, stage management, musical composition and arrangement, and various leadership roles in musical and theatrical projects, both secular and sacred, Kim has made music all over New England and the Midwest.
Locally, she has performed with the Rhode Island Touring Ensemble, and was the featured pianist for the holiday tours of Belcourt Castle in Newport, RI.
In her non-musical life, Kim is the Executive Administrative Assistant of the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications.
“Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.” – Victor Hugo
Interested in singing?
RIGMC is a gathering of individuals who, united through diversity, fellowship, and song,
strives to make a difference in the lives of our singers and our audience.
