Karen Kim, violin
Grammy Award-winning violinist Karen Kim is widely hailed for her sensitive musicianship and passionate commitment to chamber and contemporary music. Her performances have been described as “compellingly structured and intimately detailed” (Cleveland Classical) and “muscular and gripping” (New York Classical Review). She has performed extensively throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, appearing in such venues and concert series as Carnegie Hall's Zankel and Weill Recital Halls, Lincoln Center, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York; the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society and Library of Congress in Washington, DC; the Celebrity Series of Boston; the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society; the San Miguel de Allende Chamber Music Festival in Mexico; the Vienna Musikverein; London’s Wigmore Hall; the Musée d'Orsay in Paris; the Seoul Arts Center; Angel Place in Sydney; and the Havana Contemporary Music Festival. Her recordings as a founding member of the Parker Quartet from 2002 to 2012 include the complete string quartets of György Ligeti, which received the Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance in 2011. With the Parker Quartet, Karen Kim also received the Grand Prize and Mozart Prize at the 2005 Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition. Esteemed for her versatility across a broad spectrum of musical idioms and artistic disciplines, Karen has collaborated with artists ranging from Kim Kashkashian, Paul Katz, Roger Tapping, Jörg Widmann, and Shai Wosner to Questlove & The Roots and the James Sewell Ballet. She is a member of Third Sound, East Coast Contemporary Ensemble, Cadillac Moon Ensemble, and Ensemble Échappe, and frequently performs with the East Coast Chamber Orchestra, Metropolis Ensemble, NOVUS NY, and Chameleon Arts Ensemble. She is also a devoted advocate of the music of our time, and has premiered works by Lera Auerbach, Jeremy Gill, Michael Harrison, Patrick Castillo, Wang Jie, Osnat Netzer, Ryan Francis, Conrad Winslow, Inés Thiebaut, Craig Woodward, and others. A native of La Crosse, Wisconsin, Karen received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in violin performance and her master’s degree in chamber music from the New England Conservatory, where she studied with Donald Weilerstein and jazz vocalist Dominique Eade.