Jia Kim

Cellist Jia Kim, chosen as a recipient of the prestigious 2017 Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund, began her cello studies at the age of ten in Korea where she has won first place in the Korean Music Association Competition, the National Symphony Orchestra Competition of Korea and the Young Musician Foundation's National Debut Concerto Competition. Since then Ms. Kim has taken the stage in cities across the United States, South America, Europe and South Korea. Her performances have been reviewed by the New York Times, Vermont Today, South Florida Classical Review, and have been broadcast on WQXR, PBS and KMZT Classical.

As a passionate and active chamber musician, Ms. Kim has worked with renowned artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Robert Mann, Kim Kashkashian, Frans Helmerson, Robert Spano, Emmanuel Villaume, John Williams, as well as members of the Juilliard String Quartet, Cleveland Quartet, Takacs Quartet, Orion String Quartet, and guest appearances with the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO), The Knights, and A Far Cry. She has taken the stage at venues including Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Chicago Symphony Center's Orchestra Hall, Miami's Arsht Center, Valle De Bravo in Mexico, Toronto's Royal Conservatory, Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Korea Society in NYC, Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Al-Hussein Cultural Center at the National Music Conservatory of Jordan, and many more.

Ms. Kim is a recipient of numerous awards including the Jack Smith Memorial Award, Most Promising Young Talent at the 2005 Pasadena Showcase House Instrumental Competition in California, and Performing Arts Scholarship at the Cerritos Center of Arts Education. She received a full scholarship to the Crossroads School in Santa Monica and the Colburn School in Los Angeles.

As a teenager, she spent five summers at The Perlman Music Program Summer Music School in Shelter Island which gave her life-changing musical experiences. She has also been invited to participate at Académie musicale de Villecroze, Kneisel Hall, White Mountains Music Festival, Sitka Music Festival, and The Perlman Music Program's Chamber Music Workshop, where she was invited to tour with Itzhak Perlman in Israel, Toronto, Mexico City, Virginia Beach, and Miami.

A devoted educator, Ms. Kim has worked with students from the Cleveland Institute of Music, American Academy of Jordan, Tel Aviv Conservatory of Music, Grand Valley State University, and has been invited to do a Visiting Artist Residency at the University of Hawaii and College of William and Mary. In 2016, she served as Tone Judge for the Violin Society of America Competition.

Ms. Kim serves on the Faculty of The Juilliard School pre-college division, The Mannes School of Music, The Perlman Music Program, and New York Youth Symphony’s Chamber Music program. Ms. Kim is the cellist of the award-winning Aeolus Quartet.

As Artistic Director of the Spruce Peak Chamber Music Society in Stowe, VT and Central Chamber Series in NYC which takes place at the beautiful and historic Central Presbyterian Church where Charles Ives served as Music Director, Ms. Kim is committed to connecting with a wider audience through the powerful language of chamber music.

She is forever grateful to her mentors and teachers Ronald Leonard, Toby and Itzhak Perlman, and Joel Krosnick, with whom she studied at The Juilliard School for a Bachelor and Master Degree in Music. Ms. Kim performs on a Testore cello made in 1748 and a cello by Samuel Zygmuntowicz.