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Korean-born American musician Sungmin Shin maintains a vigorous schedule seamlessly navigating the unpredictable musical landscape of the 21st century. Dr. Shin is an artist-teacher, arts leadership advocate, composer, consultant, engineer-producer, ensemble director, entrepreneur, improviser, multi-instrumentalist, music theorist, and scholar. Redefining what it means to be genre-bending, Sungmin balances his serious classical training with his deep roots in diverse musical cultures to seek new modes of expression through performance, improvisation, and composition. He is frequently invited to compose, perform, teach, and adjudicate at major international competitions, events, and festivals. Known for his artistic and professional collaborative work in music and with interdisciplinary projects, Sungmin is a member of the internationally acclaimed guitar ensemble Tantalus Quartet and 8-piece rock band Lauren & the Good Souls. 

Dr. Shin has been acknowledged through numerous awards, grants and scholarships, and is equally comfortable performing in venues ranging from pristine concert halls to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Recent engagements include appearances at the June in Buffalo Festival, Iserlohn International Guitar Festival (Germany), Prismatic Debussy Festival (Eastman School), Guitar Foundation of America Convention & Competition, International Fringe Association Music Competition (Hong Kong), New Mexico Classical Guitar Festival, University of Louisville Guitar Festival & Competition, Women in Music Festival (Rochester, NY), Mid-America Guitar Ensemble Festival (Minneapolis), Rochester International Jazz Festival, CCSD Guitar Festival (Las Vegas), and many more. He has been invited to present concerts and teach masterclasses at Arkansas State University, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Crane School of Music (SUNY Potsdam), Eastman School of Music, Shenandoah Conservatory, SUNY Fredonia, University of Louisville, University of South Carolina, and Seoul National University of Education (South Korea), and more. Committed to sharing his music with diverse audiences, he regularly engages in outreach performances especially within historically marginalized communities. Recent collaborations with leading non-profit arts organizations include Internal Creations (New York City), Buffalo String Work, Guitars Antiqua (Los Angeles), ROCmusic Collaborative (Rochester, NY), and the HHC Guitar Initiative (Buffalo, NY). 

An advocate for performing music of living composers, Sungmin has collaborated and performed with notable musicians and ensembles in the new music scene including Tiffany Du Mouchelle (soprano), Emi Ferguson (flute), Alex Greffin-Klein (violin), Dieter Hennings Yeomans (guitar), Yuki Numata Resnick (violin), Nicholas Isherwood (bass baritone), fivebyfive, Ensemble Signal and Slee Sinfonietta. He has worked with leading composers and conductors including James Baker, David Felder, Yuanyuan (Kay) He, Edie Hill, Jerry Hou, Julien LeRoy, David Liptak, Brad Lubman, Robert Lydecker, Andrea Mazzariello, Hilda Paredes, Alan Pierson, Steve Reich,  Kamala Sankaram, Frank Ticheli, Melinda Wagner, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, and more. During his graduate studies at Eastman, he frequently worked with Rochester-based contemporary music ensembles Musica Nova, Ossia, and Rest Is Noise. Also, he studied with leading contemporary guitarist-composers Dusan Bogdanovic and Roland Dyens on performing their music. 

Dr. Shin is a devoted educator and shares his passion for music with students of all ages and levels. He is Associate Professor of Practice at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York where he directs the guitar program and guitar ensembles. Former students of Dr. Shin are currently working as professional musicians in Western NY and beyond and have gained admission to top music schools such as Belmont, Berklee, Eastman, Northwestern, North Texas and many more at the undergraduate and graduate levels with scholarships. His various pedagogical publications have been used by hundreds of guitar students and teachers across the US and beyond. Dr. Shin is the Artistic Director of the Buffalo International Guitar Festival and the founder/co-director of the UB International Guitar Research Conference. Also, he is a long time guitar faculty member of Guitar Workshop Plus and has taught and served as the assistant director at the various campuses of the workshop including Fort Lauderdale, Nashville, San Diego, Seattle, Toronto, and Vancouver. Dr. Shin is the founder and former director of the Penfield Guitar School.

Sungmin completed his Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree at the prestigious Eastman School of Music where he studied with Nicholas Goluses. As a teaching assistant at Eastman, Sungmin taught private guitar lessons, masterclasses, and coached ensembles for the guitar chamber music class. During this time, he established the Eastman Guitar Quartet, which took first place in the Guitar Foundation of America Ensemble Showcase in 2014. He assumed the role of primary instructor for Guitar History & Literature, Guitar Pedagogy, and Fretboard Harmony courses at Eastman and served as a TA under John Covach (“History of Rock” and “The Beatles, British Invasion, Psychedelia”) and Josef Hanson (“High Voltage: Heavy Metal Music and Its History”) at the University of Rochester. He completed coursework in early childhood music education with Donna Brink Fox, music theory pedagogy with Seth Monahan and Steven Laitz and jazz guitar studies with Bob Sneider. In conjunction with the doctoral degree, Sungmin was awarded the Certificate in Arts Leadership through the Catherine Filene Shouse Arts Leadership Program. Upon completing his master of music degree at Eastman, he was awarded the highly selective Performer's Certificate for outstanding performance. During this time, he studied early music performance practice with lutenist and conductor extraordinaire, Paul O'Dette.

Sungmin completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Southern California where he was a recipient of the Classical Guitar Department Award. At USC, he studied with distinguished artist pedagogues James Smith and Brian Head while receiving additional instruction from flamenco master Adam del Monte and Grammy Award winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet members William Kanengiser and Scott Tennant. Also, he had the incredible opportunity to study privately with the legendary guitarist Maestro Pepe Romero as well as perform numerous times in his masterclass. Sungmin made his professional debut during his time at USC as a featured soloist alongside Professor Smith with the National Children’s Choir in Los Angeles.

Sungmin is an alumnus of the Aspen Music Festival & School, where he studied with virtuoso Sharon Isbin on a full scholarship. He is also a four time alumnus of Guitar Workshop Plus (Toronto) where he studied jazz guitar on scholarships with Rob Bulger, John Pelosi, and George Muscatello. He has performed to critical acclaim in the masterclasses of world renowned artists including Eliot Fisk, Oscar Ghiglia, Timothy Kain, Dale Kavanah, Alvaro Pierri, David Russell, Raphaella Smits, Benjamin Verdery, Jason Vieaux, and many more. 

Sungmin began his musical life at the age of 10 as a blues-rock guitarist in LaSalle, ONT, studying with Ron McMinn. He began his classical guitar studies in high school with Mike McNamara in Windsor, ONT receiving high honors in examinations on guitar and music theory through the Royal Conservatory of Music in Canada.

Sungmin plays and endorses D’Addario Strings.

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