Student spotlight: Choral Conductor Mahima Kumara '25

Mahima Kumara ‘25 (she/her) is a second-year M.M. candidate in choral conducting. She graduated from Yale College in 2020 with a B.A. in statistics and data science and an education studies certificate, after which she worked at the Yale Music in Schools Initiative and the Yale Glee Club Service Through Music Fellowship. Mahima grew up in State College, Pennsylvania and returns to New Haven from Boston, where she worked in health policy research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and conducted with Boston Children’s Chorus and Tactus Ensemble Cambridge. She is also a pianist and Carnatic vocalist, and in all her work, she aims to center educational equity and inclusive community music-making. In her free time, Mahima enjoys reading and trail running. 

The choral conducting program at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Yale School of Music prepares students for careers across the full spectrum of the choral field by helping them build and refine the core skills required of a conductor and further develop their individual musical voice. Our graduates lead professional, community, church, symphonic, and youth ensembles, as well as ensembles within academia and other educational settings. They take individual lessons with the choral conducting faculty and have lessons during regular supervised conducting sessions with the Repertory and Recital choruses. 

Learn more about the choral conducting program at Yale. 

Photos by Harold Shapiro