Kim Hansen Brody ’78

    Boulder, COKim Hansen Brody '78

    Kim Hansen Brody, an oboe performance major who spent much of her time on the Hill in the Music Department, admits she was a “music nerd.”

    Yet one of the most important lessons she learned from St. Olaf Band Conductor Miles “Mity” Johnson wasn’t about music — it was about community.

    Johnson told students that “you don’t make music by yourself — even a solo performance needs an audience,” Brody recalls.

    Brody’s participation in tours with the St. Olaf Band and St. Olaf Orchestra strengthened this idea of community. On one St. Olaf Choir tour, she even performed a four-minute oboe solo that incorporated audience participation.

    Since graduating from St. Olaf, Brody has continued to live a music-filled life. She moved to Chicago in 1986, where she played local gigs and worked as a freelance musician for 16 years. After starting a family, she moved to Boulder, Colorado, where she helps manage the Colorado Music Festival. She still teaches and plays oboe, and is proud to have put together a St. Olaf alumni band in Chicago.

    “The world of professional music is especially competitive,” says Brody. “But St. Olaf gave me the opportunity to experience support and celebration of my achievements.”

    Knowing that such support existed was of paramount importance to Brody, especially in the face of competition and setbacks in the professional world. The value of St. Olaf’s supportive environment hit home again years later, when Brody was able to re-experience the college through her daughter, Lindsie Katz, a violinist who graduated in 2014.

    “Seeing that this support, community, and camaraderie still exists makes St. Olaf such a special place,” says Brody.

    As a member of the Alumni Board, Brody wants to provide this support and outreach to others. At St. Olaf, she learned that personal relationships are what life is all about. She intends to use this mantra when conducting her affairs as a member of the board, striving to get more Ole grads involved in the social sphere, and working to build the St. Olaf community in Colorado.