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 teach at festivals such as Festival de Campos do Jordão in Brazil, Academy y Festival Nuevo Mundo in Venezuela, Brevard Music Center, and Masterworks Festival.

Prior to her appointment to Wheaton College Conservatory of Music in 2021, Altino taught for twenty years at public institutions – the University of Wisconsin-Madison and at 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 she gleaned from 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. and studied at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University where she developed a strong affinity for chamber music and music theory. She completed her bachelor’s, master’s and the 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 Faculty Global Research Grant from Wheaton College, Vilas Associates grant from UW-Madison, 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 the traditional Korean music has awakened a new appreciation for her cultural heritage and identity, and Altino aspires to promote better understanding of the unique musical language to the Western-trained musicians and composers. Visit 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.