Kari Zimny Conductor Symphonic Wind Ensemble

Kari Zimny has been a music educator since graduating from Illinois State University with a bachelor’s degree in music education in 1977. There she studied flute with Max Schoenfeld. In 2007 she earned a master’s degree in teaching with a specialty in Best Practices. Mrs. Zimny has taught both publicly and privately for more than 33 years with expertise in instrumental and vocal music. As an instrumental music teacher in the Sacramento City Unified School District, Mrs. Zimny’s ensembles have received numerous superior ratings and awards in the region. In 2011, her Albert Einstein Middle School Wind Ensemble was invited to play at the Association for Su­pervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) national conference in San Francisco.

In 2011, Mrs. Zimny was awarded the Sacramento Unified School District’s Teacher of the Year Award. She received the California Music Educator Association’s Music Educator of the Year for the Capitol Section in 2008. She has been active in march­ing band and drums corps for her entire career, and has been part of the instruc­tional staff of the national award-winning Marian Catholic High School Marching Band from Chicago Heights, Illinois.

As a ten-year member of the Camellia City Flute Choir, Mrs. Zimny continues her passion for performing. Her husband, John Zimny, is an instrumental music educator in Folsom, California. His jazz ensembles have won several national awards from DownBeat magazine.