~ Program ~
 

Korean-American violinist Soovin Kim enjoys one of the broadest musical careers as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician, conductor, presenter, and educator. His international concert career was launched after winning first prize at the Paganini International Competition when he was 20 years old. He subsequently was the recipient of such distinguished prizes as the Henryk Szeryng Career Award, the Avery Fisher Grant, and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.

Soovin Kim regularly performs an immense range of repertoire that includes solo Bach and Paganini works, Beethoven and Ives sonatas, Mozart and Vivaldi concertos without conductor, Bartok and Webern quartets, and new world-premiere works almost every season. He performed for 20 years as the 1st violinist of the Johannes String Quartet and recently formed the Chien-Kim-Watkins piano trio with Gloria Chien and cellist Paul Watkins.

Soovin Kim founded the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont in 2009. The festival has become known for its explorative programming and extensive work with living composers. Mr. Kim and the LCCMF also created the ONE Strings program through which all 3rd through 5th-grade students of the Integrated Arts Academy in Burlington study violin. The University of Vermont recognized Mr. Kim’s work with an honorary doctorate in 2015. Together with his wife, pianist Gloria Chien, he will become co-artistic director of the summer festival and presenting organization Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon.

Mr. Kim dedicates much of his time to his passion for teaching. He has been on the faculties of Stony Brook University and the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, and now he teaches exclusively at the New England Conservatory in Boston.

 

Taiwanese-American pianist Gloria Chien is becoming known not only for the “elegant ripples and shadings” (The New York Times) of her nuanced playing but also as an educator and leader of arts organizations. The Boston Globe selected her as one of its Superior Pianists of the year, “… who appears to excel in everything…a wondrously rich palette of colors, which she mixes with dashing bravado and with an uncanny precision of calibration… Chien’s performance had it all, and it was fabulous.”

Ms. Chien made her orchestral solo debut at the age of 16 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She is in demand as a collaborator for recitals, with string quartets, and at major chamber music festivals. She regularly performs in the United States at venues such as Alice Tully Hall, Jordan Hall, the Library of Congress, and the Phillips Collection, and abroad she has recently performed at the Dresden Chamber Music Festival, Seoul Arts Center, and the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. Ms. Chien was part of the Bowers Program at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and continues to regularly perform as an artist-member of the Society.

Gloria Chien is the founder and artistic director of String Theory, a concert series launched in 2009 at the Hunter Museum of American Art in downtown Chattanooga. In 2010, Ms. Chien was appointed the director of the Chamber Music Institute at Music@Menlo. In 2017, she was named the co-artistic director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in 2017, joining violinist and husband Soovin Kim. Most recently the couple have been selected to become the next artistic directors of the summer festival and presenting organization Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon.

Gloria Chien began playing the piano at age five in her native Taiwan. She came to the United States in high school to study at Wa

lnut Hill School for the Arts and at the New England Conservatory with Russell Sherman and Wha-Kyung Byun. Ms. Chien is a former associate professor and current artist-in-residence at Lee University in Cleveland, TN. She is a Steinway Artist.