Korean Concert Society Artists

2012 | Irene Kim, Piano

Performance Date: Sep. 8, 2012

Irene Kim’s dazzling yet stylistically pure performances have been heard across North America in recitals and appearances with the Washington Youth Orchestra, Los Angeles Korean Chamber Orchestra, Rio Hondo Symphony, Southwestern Youth Music Festival Orchestra, and repeat performances with the Young Musicians Foundation Orchestra. Irene has won awards including the Franz Liszt First Prize in the Liszt-Garrison International Young Artist competition and top prizes in the Carmel Music Society, Yale Gordon Concerto, and Russell C. Wonderlic competitions.

More

2012 | Esther Park, Piano

Esther Park was chosen as the 2012 Kennedy Center debut recitalist, but cannot perform because she has been invited to participate in the Leeds Piano Competition. KCS congratulates Esther on this opportunity and is pleased to announce that alternate Irene Kim will perform instead.

Pianist Esther Park has performed as a soloist with orchestras and in recitals across the United States as well as Asia and major European cities. Ms. Park has appeared as soloist with many orchestras such as Houston Symphony, Corpus Christi Symphony, Filharmonia Pomorska, Poland, Orchestra Filarmonica, Romania, Shanghai Philharmonic, China, the American Academy of Conducting Orchestra at Aspen, Shreveport Symphony, the Juilliard Symphony, and the New Jersey Symphony.

More

2012 - 2013 | Quentin Kim, Composer

The KCS Composer-in-Residence for the 2012 and 2013 seasons, Quentin Kim, creates emotionally compelling music based on his conviction in the “perpetual modernity of tonality.” His music has been performed at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, New York Society for Ethical Culture, Salle Cortot in Paris, Cajastur Cultural Center in Gijón, Spain, as well as at the Concerts at the Crossroads series in Cleveland. Kim’s work has been praised for its “refreshingly direct” (New York Concert Review) quality. Also an outstanding pianist, Kim earned a doctorate in Piano Performance at Julliard in 2010.

More

2011 | Ji-Yoon Park, Violin

Performance Date: Oct. 15, 2011

Born in Korea in 1985, Ji-Yoon Park won first prize at the Hankuk Ilbo Competition at the age of nine, and two years later took home first prize from the Chosun Ilbo Competition. In 2001, one year after moving to France, she was awarded first prize at the Concours des jeunes interprètes de Canet in Roussillon, and went on to win first prize at the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition in Switzerland at age 18.

More

2010 | Jonah Kim, Cello

Performance Date: Nov. 7, 2010

Korean cellist Jonah Kim was recognized at an early age as an extremely gifted musical prodigy. He studied briefly with the renowned Janos Starker, who later remarked, “Jonah is an exceptional talent. He is at the top of his generation.” He studied for six years at the Curtis Institute of Music and participated in master classes with many of today’s leading cellists.

More

2010 | Sang Eun Lee, Cello

Sang Eun Lee had to cancel her recital because she was selected to compete in the second round of the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann. KCS congratulates Sang Eun, and, though we regret she will not perform, we are pleased to announce that cellist Jonah Kim will perform instead.

Sang-Eun Lee, was born in 1993 in South Korea and is a student of Myung-Wha Chung and Hae-Eun Kim at the Korean National University of Arts in Seoul. The winner of the Ewha-Kyunghyang Competition has already gained concert experience as a soloist with orchestral accompaniment. In May 2010 she performed the cello concerto by Robert Schumann with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.

More

2009 | Elizabeth Joy Roe, Piano

Performance Date: Oct. 31, 2009

Hailed as “brilliant” (the New York Times), “an artist to be taken seriously” (the Chicago Tribune), “electrifying” (the Dallas Morning News), “magnificent” (Piano and Keyboard Magazine), “a mature and fascinating interpreter and an artist of intelligence, insight, and a genuine grace” (the Southampton Press), pianist Elizabeth Joy Roe was featured in Symphony Magazine’s cover story as one of the classical music world’s “Six on the Rise: Young Artists to Watch.”

More

2009 | Richard Yongjae O’Neill, Viola

Performance Date: May. 2, 2009

Praised by the London Times as “ravishing” the Los Angeles Times as “technically immaculate” the Seattle Times as “fantastic” the Boston Globe as “sensational” the San Francisco Chronicle for his “fierce virtuosity”, and the and the New York Times as “high class” with an “elegant, velvety tone” violist Richard O’Neill is one of the very few violists ever to receive an Avery Fisher Career Grant as well as a Grammy Award Nomination.

More

2008 | Stephanie Jeong, Violin

Performance Date: Nov. 9, 2008

Violinist Stephanie Jeong was appointed Associate Concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the fall of 2011 by Music Director Riccardo Muti. Prior to joining the CSO, she was a member of the New York Philharmonic from 2010-2011. The top prize winner and recipient of the Best Paganini Concerto Prize of the 2008 Paganini Violin Competition in Italy, Jeong made her solo debut at age 12 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as winner of its Feinburg Competition and with The Philadelphia Orchestra as winner of its Albert M. Greenfield Competition.

More

2007 | Hee-Young Lim, Cello

Performance Date: Nov. 3, 2007

A winner of numerous competitions, Ms. Lim, a native of Korea, has won the Washington International Competition for Strings, the Barnett Foundation Competition, and the Sorantin International String Competition. She captured the grand prize at the IBLA International Competition in Italy, where she was given a Special Mention and recognized as a Most Distinguished Musician. She joined Astral Artists’ roster as the winner of its 2009 national auditions.

More