Biography
Praised for her “musical maturity and masterful technique” (Leipziger Volkszeitung), Korean-born violinist
Soo Yeon Kim is a recitalist, teaching artist, and a speaker -- she is regularly invited on concert stages throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia. As a soloist, chamber musician, and an orchestral player, she has appeared in renown venues such as Alice Tully Hall, David Geffen Hall and Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Lincoln Center, Stern Auditorium and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie, Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre, St. Cecilia Music Center in Grand Rapids, MI, as well as in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Japan, and South Korea. As a passionate educator, she frequently gives masterclasses and workshops across the country encouraging mindful practicing and performing.
Starting with her first solo appearance with the Korean Sinfonietta at the age of 7 and then making her New York debut with the Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra at the age of 12 in Lincoln Center, she has been featured as a young artist and a violin fellow in major music festivals including the Starling-Delay Symposium on Violin Studies at Juilliard, Aspen Music Festival-Conducting Academy, and Leipzig Internationale Sommer-Musikakademie in Germany, and Holland Music Sessions in the Netherlands. She is the winner of the Eastman School of Music Concerto Competition, the Juilliard School Pre-College Concerto Competition, Mae and Fletcher Fish Young Artist Competition, and was named as a finalist at the Johansen International String Competition.
As an avid chamber musician, Soo Yeon has collaborated with and performed for the leading composers of her generation and eminent artists, namely the late Peter Serkin, Joseph Kalichstein, Timothy Eddy, and the members of American String Quartet, Emerson String Quartet and Juilliard Quartet. Her collaboration with the New Juilliard Ensemble at Lincoln Center’s Focus! Festival led to premiering works by world-renown living composers including Andrew Ford and Aleksander Lasoń, which were live-streamed on New York’s Classical Radio Station, WQXR. She has also premiered and recorded the American composer Samuel Adler’s A Euphonious Quartet, which is now available on major digital platforms, including Spotify and iTunes.
Having gone through an unusual musical journey (read more), which involved overcoming a hand injury that had lasted more than a decade, Soo Yeon takes a great interest in mental practice, which led her to extensively researching the topic of mindfulness in instrumental teaching. A D.M.A. graduate of Eastman School of Music -- majoring in Violin Performance and Literature and minoring in Music History and String Pedagogy -- her research culminated in a doctoral independent study and lecture recital entitled, "Mindfulness in Instrumental Teaching and Learning: J.S. Bach’s B-minor Partita as Case Study." She is frequently invited as a guest artist in string masterclasses and workshops, as well as medical conferences to share the findings of her healing journey, involving mindfulness.
She is a current Assistant Professor of Violin and Viola, as well as the Director of String Chamber Ensemble at Houghton College. Previously, she has served on violin faculty and instructor positions at University of Rochester-Eastman, Carnegie’s Weill Institute, Thurnauer School of Music of Kaplen JCC on the Palisades, Luzerne Music Center, Bay View Music Festival in Michigan, Castle Rock Music Camp in Utah, Houghton Music Camp in New York, and Blue Mountain Music Camp in Maryland.
A former student of Stephen Clapp and Sylvia Rosenberg, Soo Yeon has bachelor's (B.M.) and master’s (M.M.) degrees from The Juilliard School on a full scholarship. In 2020, she earned her doctorate degree from Eastman School of Music, studying with Robin Scott. While her residency at Juilliard, she was a teaching assistant and a teaching fellow in Music History and Music Theory Departments. She also fulfilled her Teaching Artist appointments at PS 11, George Jackson Academy and City College Academy of the Arts as the recipient of Arts Enrichment Fellowship, Concert Fellowship and Morse Teaching Artist Fellowship. At Eastman, she was awarded several teaching fellowships and was the teaching assistant of Robin Scott's studio while fulfilling her role as the secondary violin instructor at University of Rochester.