Dr. Karim Yengsep

Over the past decade, Karim performed with numerous jazz, Western-European classical, and World music ensembles and was a featured guest during live broadcasts on Illinois Public Media WILL FM. In 2010, he executive produced and performed on “Bossa Nuevo,” a CD released by Teal Creek Music (Oregon). Most recently, Karim can be heard playing bass on a CD by Chicago based Palestinian-American composer, Issa Boulos, “Bonfire” (2019).

A graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign School of Music (DMA, MM) and Western Oregon University (BA in Music), Karim is an avid Suzuki educator and is a registered bass teacher with the Suzuki Association of the Americas.

Since relocating to Southern California in 2018, Karim opened SoCal Jazz Academy, a jazz education program for youth, kids, and adults and began producing and hosting a podcast dedicated to various topics in music education and the performing arts, Sketches in Blue.

Testimonials:

• “Karim has been a wonderful teacher—he inspires with his enthusiasm and love of music. He is quickly able to diagnose issues with technique and demonstrates how to correct them so effectively. But he especially helps you see “beyond” the notes on the page. We very much appreciated his encouraging and generous teaching style. He is a fantastic teacher and human being.”—Amy Wang M.D., Parent

• “Karim is not only an excellent teacher of the bass he is also fun, interesting and inspirational. He knows how to communicate technique and how to inspire musicality. Taking lessons from him and learning to play the bass is one of the best musical experiences we have had.”—Robin Hart, Parent

• “He is inspiring because he is dedicated to his music, he is intelligent and articulate, and he easily and generously shares his insights and enthusiasm. He was always interesting, appropriately demanding, and sort of paternally insistent until I got it the way he wanted it. I think he has the right combination of skills and qualities that make him a teacher with whom you will enjoy working.”—Terry Donlon Ph.D., Student