LW Orchestra conductor Samuel Kim will pass the torch to Linda DeRungs
The Leisure World Orchestra’s Dec. 14 concert will mark the changing of the guard on the conductor’s podium.
Samuel Kim, the group’s conductor for the past three years, will direct his final concert for the orchestra, whose origins date to Leisure World’s founding in 1962. Kim will transfer the baton to Linda DeRungs, who brings her own distinguished conducting career to the director’s chair in January.
“What I’ll miss most are all the people, such nice people. They are so supportive. I will not forget these relationships for the rest of my life,” Kim said. “I urge all of the members to keep improving under the direction of Linda. It’s a good orchestra, so keep going and we’ll have one of the best senior orchestras.”
Kim, who earned a doctorate in choral and orchestral conducting from the University of Southern California, has himself taught at several universities in both the Republic of Korea and the United States. His professional credits include conducting assignments with Germany’s Kantorei im Christlichen Saengerbund, the Oregon Bach Festival, the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, the Oregon Opera Festival and Korea’s Seoul Academy Orchestra and Jeju Symphony Orchestra.
Kim will be succeeded by another trained conductor and classical performer. DeRungs received her master’s in choral conducting from the University of Missouri’s Conservatory of Music and was a music educator for over 40 years. She was the arts chair at an Indiana high school whose performing arts program was the subject of a Showtime documentary, and a New York Times feature story.
At the same time, DeRungs was the soprano soloist for the Louisville-based Ars Femina Ensemble, which specialized in recovering and performing classical music written by women before 1800. The group produced five recordings, including “La Liberazione di Ruggiero dall’Isola d’ Alcina,” which the BBC named among 1994’s Top-10 classical recordings. Ars Femina’s ground-breaking work also earned feature coverage on NBC’s “Sunday Morning” show and National Public Radio’s “Weekend Edition.”
DeRungs is no stranger to the LW Orchestra. For over a year, she has shared conducting duties with Kim and alternating weekly rehearsals.
“I really appreciate Dr. Kim letting me take not just one or two pieces, but a chunk of it, because it helped me develop more skills and communication with the orchestra. To just jump in cold after he retires would have been kind of awkward,” DeRungs said. “I’ve been learning a lot and figuring out what the orchestra needs and what kind of cues work and what cues don’t. It’s an organic thing, a living thing.”
The two conductors will share the Dec. 14 concert. In the first half, DeRungs will direct the orchestra in Mozart’s “Clarinet Concerto” featuring soloist Mark Fronke, as well as works by 19th-century composers Rimsky-Korsakov, and Franz von Suppé. Kim will conduct the concert’s second half consisting of holiday favorites. The finale will be Mozart’s “Gloria” performed by the orchestra and the Leisure World Korean Community Church choir, for which Kim is the music pastor.
“Dr. Kim and I have made music our lives,” she said. “To be able to be involved with a sophisticated organization like this at my age, to lead a group like this, it’s pretty cool.”
The free Dec. 14 concert will start at 1 p.m. in Clubhouse 2.
Dr. Samuel Kim (l) will step down as conductor of the LW Orchestra. He will be succeeded by Linda De- Rungs (r).
Emma DiMaggio
