Soovin Kim - Biography

Soovin Kim was supported by BBT between 2005 and 2008, when this page was last updated.

American violinist Soovin Kim is an exciting young player who has built on the early successes of his prize-winning years to emerge as a mature artist, equally gifted in concerto, recital, and chamber music repertoire. His 2008-2009 season includes performances of Prokofiev with Leon Botstein at the prestigious Bard Festival and appearances at the Marlboro Festival, as well as three tours: one with the legendary Guarneri Quartet, one with Musicians from Marlboro, as well as one in Europe with fellow winners of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. Partners include Mitsuko Uchida, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Colin Carr, the Johannes Quartet, William Purvis, Gilbert Kalish, the Chiara Quartet, David Soyer, and Jeremy Denk. His latest CD recording on Azica Records (ACD 71243) is Fauré A Major Sonata, Op.13 and the rarely performed Chausson Concerto in D for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet, Op.21, with Jeremy Denk and the Jupiter String Quartet. His first solo CD (Azica Records ACD 71235), Niccolò Paganini’s demanding 24 Caprices for solo violin, was released in February 2006, zoomed to Billboard’s Classical Chart, and was named Classic FM magazine’s Instrumental Disc of the Month. This season he appears in Korea with his quartet M.I.K. and he will tour compositions commissioned by his American ensemble, the Johannes Quartet, in a programme with the Guarneri Quartet featuring the music of Derek Bermel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and William Bolcom. Highlights of 2007-2008 included Brahms Violin Concerto with Annapolis Symphony Orchestra and Jose-Luis Novo; appearances at Ravinia, the Freer Gallery, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Recent concerto appearances include performances of Mendelssohn concerto with Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and National Philharmonic, Mozart Concerto in A, K.219 with Nashville Symphony, and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and Ignat Solzhenitsyn. Soovin Kim enjoys teaching and has held posts at Yale and, currently, at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He plays the 1709 “ex-Kempner” Stradivarius.

Last updated: February 2009

When I was given a BB Trust Award, I could feel that I was about to begin a journey with a special organization. The BB Trust is a team that provides us with the financial, artistic and moral support that every striving young artist needs. It is an award that is particularly rewarding because it feels like a reconfirmation – as if I am being reassured by this most distinguished of panels that it appreciates what I am working for as I grow into my life as an adult artist. I look forward to many exciting things in future years during my relationship with the Trust, and I also look forward to the challenge of living up to the responsibility of being an awardee.

Photographs by Woo-Ryong Chai