Violinist Soovin Kim joins Yale School of Music faculty

The Yale School of Music is pleased to announce the appointment of renowned violinist Soovin Kim, who will join the School of Music faculty in July as Visiting Professor in the Practice of Violin. In addition to a studio class of applied violin students, Mr. Kim will coach chamber music and conduct a master class each semester. With his new colleagues on the violin faculty, Mr. Kim will participate in violin auditions for the 2022-2023 academic year.

Among his artistic accolades are the first prize at the 1996 Paganini International Violin Competition, the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the Henryk Szeryng Foundation Career Award. He also received the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s 2021 Award for Extraordinary Service to Chamber Music.

He has performed with many of the major orchestras in the United States and beyond, presented recitals on the world’s most celebrated stages, and released recordings on the Koch Discover International, Delos, Azica Records, and Stomp/EMI (Korea) labels. He has worked and collaborated with such revered chamber musicians as Jeremy Denk and Mitsuko Uchida and for two decades was the first violinist in Johannes String Quartet. Today, Mr. Kim is part of the Chien-Kim-Watkins Trio with his wife, pianist Gloria Chien, and YSM faculty cellist Paul Watkins.

Mr. Kim’s service to music students as a faculty member at the New England Conservatory, the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, and Stony Brook University earned him an enviable reputation as a teacher of future artists. He was also appointed an international scholar at Kyung Hee University in Seoul. Mr. Kim earned his bachelor of music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music with prior studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He is the Artistic Director of Chamber Music Northwest and the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, which he founded. Further, he maintains a relationship with the Marlboro Music Festival, with which he has performed on a dozen national tours over the course of nearly 15 years.

Please join us in welcoming Soovin Kim to the Yale School of Music.