A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, he earned his Master of Music in Viola Performance from the Juilliard School, under the tutelage of Samuel Rhodes. Having begun his musical studies at a young age on the violin with his mother, Ellen Kim, he transitioned to the viola in high school under Sabina Thatcher. Mr. Kim completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he studied with Sally Chisholm, receiving a BA in Viola Performance and a certificate in East Asian Studies.
An alumnus of the Tanglewood Music Center, where he won the Maurice Schwartz Prize, he has participated in such festivals as the Pacific Music Festival, Lucerne, Aspen, and Marlboro, and has toured with Musicians from Marlboro. As a teacher, he was in residence with El Sistema in Caracas and the Northern Lights Chamber Music Institute in Ely, Minnesota. Mr. Kim also appeared on Sesame Street with conductor Alan Gilbert and participates in the BSO’s Concerts for Very Young People at Boston Children’s Museum. As an avid chamber musician, he has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota, Concordia Chamber Players, and Pro Arte Quartet, and has collaborated with artists including Joseph Silverstein, Peter Wiley, Marcy Rosen, Richard O’Neill, Charles Neidich, and Anthony McGill, among others.
Mr. Kim toured South Korea in 2014 with his string quartet, Quartet Senza Misura, and violist Richard O’Neill. Kim was also a tenured member of the Madison Symphony Orchestra while earning his undergraduate degree. One of the first musicians to participate in the Boston Symphony-Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra musician exchange, he joined the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, Germany during the 2018-19 season. Mr. Kim recently joined the Boston University College of Fine Arts as Lecturer in Music.