제임스 김  James Kim

Recipient of Salon de Virtuosi’s Sony Career Grant and the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Scholarship, James Kim made his first international appearance at the 2006 David Popper International Cello Competition in Hungary, where he received First Prize. He has since performed concerti with orchestras such as the Boston Symphony, Royal Philharmonic of London, Walloon Royal Chamber, Daejeon Philharmonic, Incheon Philharmonic, Tongyeong Festival, Korean Symphony, Daegu Symphony, and Korean Broadcasting System. These appearances have been at venues including the Symphony Hall and Jordan Hall of Boston, Carnegie Zankel Hall, Stern Auditorium, and Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, as well as Lotte Concert Hall, Tongyeong Concert Hall, and Daegu Concert House in his native Korea. He has worked with conductors such as David Zinman, Michael Sanderling, Alexander Shelley, Matthias Bamert, Keith Lockhart, Tan Dun, Benjamin Zander, Frank Braley, and Julian Kovatchev. He was a top prizewinner at the 2015 Isang Yun International Cello Competition, where he also won Special Prize. He has given solo recitals sponsored by Kumho Foundation's “Beautiful Thursday,” “Prodigy,” and “Rising Star” Recital Series at Kumho Art Hall, WQXR Midday Masterpieces Series at the Greene Space, Robert Sherman’s Young Artist Showcase at WQXR, Bruce Adolphe's Garden City Chamber Music Society in Long Island, New York, “From the Top” live from Jordan Hall, and Yale School of Music for his 2013 Carnegie Weill Hall recital debut. His performances in the United States have been broadcasted on WQXR and National Public Radio. He has participated as a fellow at the Ravinia Festival Steans Institute, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Encounters, Verbier Festival Academy, Music@Menlo, Perlman Program, Great Mountains Music Festival, Indiana University String Academy, and the Kronberg Academy Masterclasses. He is a member of Ensemble DITTO and Sejong Soloists. His principal teachers include Susan Moses, Janos Starker, Laurence Lesser, Aldo Parisot, Joel Krosnick, and Philippe Muller. An Artist Diploma graduate from The Juilliard School, where he is currently Studio Teaching Assistant to Joel Krosnick, he is pursuing his Doctoral degree at the Manhattan School of Music. He performs on a Matteo Goffriller cello from Venice ca. 1715, generously loaned by The Samsung Foundation of Culture of Korea and The Stradivari Society® of Chicago, Illinois.

 

His Carnegie Weill Hall recital debut in 2013 received rave reviews, such as "this astonished and experienced connoisseur realized that James Kim is a miracle. Never before have I encountered such winged ease, such airborne joy, such silken smooth bowing and tone production. All of these facets were present at the service of stylistic knowledge, bracing rhythmic thrust and most importantly, an inviting warmth and modest honesty" (Harris Goldsmith, New York Concert Review). His Stern Auditorium concerto debut in 2015 garnered reviews such as “The young Mr. Kim played with admirable purity of tone and accuracy (James Oestreich, The New York Times) and “The young Korean gave a wonderfully stormy account of the Shostakovich First Cello Concerto. Stormy without the mania which its dedicatee Mstislav Rostropovich gave to the music. But that was Rostropovich, and there was no reason for Mr. Kim to try and imitate an artist of such a singular temperament. Instead, Mr. Kim was deft, thunderous when needed, and in that extraordinary polyphonic cadenza, he did something rare..Yes, it was performed without a hitch, it was transparent, vital, lyrical. But Mr. Kim never seemed to find its agonizing difficulty. He never sculpted out its passions. Rather, he played that cadenza with a brooding, sensitive exceptional expression. With Mr. Zinman directing the complex orchestral part behind him, it was a noble and memorable performance” (Harry Rolnick, Concertonet). Regarding his performance of the same concerto five years before, the Boston Intelligencer wrote, “The Shostakovich provided a fine showcase for the 16-year-old cellist James Kim as well as for the orchestra...The playing here was wonderfully atmospheric...Here Mr. Kim displayed his virtuosity, always using it for musical ends...Mr. Kim, Mr. Zander, and the YPO richly deserved the vociferous approval the audience gave them.”