With five albums to her credit, Strickland is considered a mainstay in jazz, and she’s made her name for herself in classical music, too, playing with the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra and as a soloist.
Kimberly Strickland serves as Director of Student Services at the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham and is also an accomplished classical flutist, Billboard chart-topping jazz musician who goes by the name of Kim Scott. By day, Kimberly Strickland serves as Director of Student Services at the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham.
“I’ve been able to bless by the steps that I’ve taken and through the experiences I’ve had,” said Strickland, 48. “It’s like a dream.”Teaching is important to Strickland, in part, because she credits her teachers for getting her to where she is today. Her first teachers, however, were her parents, who led by example, instilling in her an appreciation for music.
Before having children, Strickland’s parents were signed to Stax Records, the legendary Memphis, Tennessee-based record label often credited with the creation of Southern soul music. Winter often would give Strickland additional lessons after school. “I thought she was doing that for everybody, but later she told me, ‘I just felt like you were on to something,’” Strickland recalled, adding that she made first chair, meaning she was the lead musician in her band section, every year in middle school.
While Strickland loved her marching band experience, she said she often felt like “the oddball” at the school. After a year and a half at Phillips, she enrolled at ASFA. Cohen, who retired from UA in 2004 but continues to perform and teach at international festivals and via private lessons, said her goal with all her students was to teach them to become world citizens.
Next, Strickland did a cover of “Orange Moon,” by singer-songwriter Erykah Badu, often called “The Queen of Neo Soul.” Pretty soon, she was performing at a jazz festival. When folks in the audience started asking to buy her record—which she didn’t have at the time—she knew it was time to get in the studio.
Strickland, who has been married to Stephen “DJ Strick” Strickland for nine years and has an 18-year-old son and twin “bonus sons” age 28, is currently working on her sixth album, which she hopes will be released early next year. Still, she has no plans to stop teaching any time soon.Tim Mitchell, Ph.D. President of Alabama School of Fine Arts, calls Strickland an “aspirational role model.”
Strickland’s proud to be part of the supergroup Jazz in Pink, a collective of today’s top female jazz artists. “I have to stay aware of all of that to continue to make it work,” she said. “But what I found is, when I do that, I’m not stressed out.”
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