Faculty Profiles

Violinist Soh-Hyun Park Altino is highly regarded as a gifted teacher and a versatile performer of solo and chamber music. Lauded for her “poise and precision,” her engagements have taken her to Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Korea, Venezuela, and throughout the United States, and to festivals such as Festival de Campos do Jordão in Brazil, Academy y Festival Nuevo Mundo in Venezuela, Masterworks Festival, and Brevard Music Center.

Prior to her appointment to Wheaton College Conservatory of Music, Altino taught for twenty years at public universities – the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Memphis. A recipient of the Phillip R. Certain-Gary D. Sandefur Distinguished Faculty Award at UW-Madison, Altino loves mentoring her students through the all-encompassing processes of learning to communicate via the sound of the violin. In addition, the experiences and insights from her playing-related injuries have continually fueled her passion and inquisitiveness for teaching. Deeply committed to teacher training and continuing education, she presents professional development sessions and clinics for string teachers and their students.

A native of Korea, Altino grew up in a musical family. At age sixteen, she came to the U.S., where she studied at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University and developed a strong affinity for chamber music and music theory. She completed her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctor of musical arts degrees in violin performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she was a student and teaching assistant to Donald Weilerstein. She studied chamber music with Anne Epperson and the members of the Peabody Trio and the Juilliard, Concord, Cavani, and Cleveland Quartets.

In 2019, Altino began a new line of research of interpreting traditional Korean music on the Western violin, supported by several grants such as the Vilas Associates grant from UW-Madison, Faculty Global Research Grant from Wheaton College, a research travel grant from the Association for Asian Studies, and the Korean Studies Grant from the Academy of Korean Studies. In the fall of 2023, she presented a series of lectures and world premiere performances of the traditional Korean sanjo across the United States. Studying traditional Korean music has awakened a new appreciation of her cultural heritage and identity, and Altino aspires to promote a better understanding of the unique musical language to Western-trained musicians and composers. sohhyunparkaltino.com for more information.

Soh-Hyun and her husband, Leonardo Altino, frequently perform together, have recorded an album, En Voyage, of chamber music for violin and cello, and enjoy traveling with their son David.

Cleveland Institute of Music
D.M.A. Violin Performance, 2002

Cleveland Institute of Music
M.M. Violin Performance, 1998

Cleveland Institute of Music
B.M. Violin Performance, 1996

Rebecca Clarke: Midsummer Moon for violin and piano (1924)

Amy Beach: Romance for violin and piano, Op. 23 (1893)

Maurice Ravel: Sonata for violin and cello (1922) Allegro; II. Très vif 

La Un-Yung: Sanjo for Violin and Piano (1955)

Playing Korean Sanjo on the Violin: Lecture & World Premiere Performance