About

Kim Blanchard – Artisitc Director

Kim has been teaching cello privately in the Seattle area since 2000.  Trained in both traditional and Suzuki methods, she has most recently received pedagogy training in the Suzuki method studying under Barbara Wampner, Gilda Barston, Carey Cheney, & Pam Devenport.  She has coached at Chamber Music Madness for many years, under nationally recognized chamber musician and mentor, Karen Iglitzen.  Kim has been actively involved in the arts community of the northwest for over a decade.  She has performed with the Northwest Symphony Orchestra, Bellevue Opera, Lyric Opera NW, Ballet Bellevue, Seattle Rock Orchestra, as well as freelancing and being actively involved in the chamber music community around Seattle.  Kim moved to Seattle in 1996 after receiving her BFA from Alfred University in New York, and went on to receive her B of M in cello performance from Cornish College of the Arts in 2005 where she studied with Paige Stockley Lerner.  Kim was also very fortunate to study composition with Janice Giteck and Jarrad Powell at Cornish.  Her works have been performed by the Saint Helens String Quartet, Bainbridge Choral, and the Northwest Symphony Orchestra.

Kim currently studies with Mr. Walter Gray of the Seattle Symphony, and she recently formed the Issaquah Suzuki Strings Faculty String Quartet with her colleagues Rafael Howell, Jenny McCrorey, and Andrea Talley.

Kim was inspired to start the Foothills Cello Festival in hopes of creating another opportunity to share her love of chamber music with young cellists.  Apart from directing the Foothills Cello Festival, Kim is faculty for the Foothills Suzuki Institute during the school year and Tierra Summer Strings and Vivace Chamber Players in the summer.