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About Pianist Quentin Kim

Hailed as “the most charming…vivid, observant artist...with personality...wit, buoyancy and affection” (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland), whose playing “worked magic” and was “simply beautiful” (Goslarsche Zeitung, Germany), Korean pianist Quentin Kim tours extensively in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, having been invited to perform at Alice Tully Hall in New York City, Salle Cortot in Paris, Bishopsgate Hall in London, the Harold Washington Library in Chicago, and at the Permanent Missions of Korea, and of India, to the United Nations, and the Residence of the United Nations Secretary-General. He was also invited to give recitals at the International Piano Festival of Gijón (Spain) and at the illustrious Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts Series of Chicago, as well as at various universities and conservatories in the United States and abroad, including MiraCosta College (California), University of Illinois at Chicago, National Louis University (Illinois), Kyungwon University (Korea), and Tianjin Conservatory of Music (China). As well, Quentin was presented at New York City’s Jerome L. Green Memorial Concerts Series, and performance series at Steinway Hall, Yamaha Piano Salon concert series, and Mahattan School of Music. He also appeared with many orchestras, including the Elgin Symphony, Kankakee Valley Symphony, Michigan Chamber Symphony, and Michigan State University Symphony Orchestra, among others. Quentin has been the First Prize winner of a number of national and international competitions, among them the Grace Welsh International Prize for Piano, the Five Towns Music and Arts Competition (New York), the Kalamazoo Bach Young Artists’ Competition, and the Joong Ang Music Concours of Korea. He was also a Concert Artists Guild International Competition finalist, a New Orleans International Piano Competition semifinalist, and a Sally and Ted Brown Prize recipient at the Cleveland International Piano Competition.

Equally active as a composer, whose “unique” art is “marked by a tireless pursuit of excellence…and a fascination with beauty” (Professor Nicholas Roth, Drake University), Quentin’s music has been praised and favored by the public and professional musicians alike for its “expressive, sensitive and poetic” quality, as in the words of pianist Vassily Primakov. The American Record Guide called his compositions “worthy of repeated hearings.” His music has been heard to acclaim at venues worldwide, at Alice Tully Hall and Society for Ethical Culture in New York City, Cajastur Cultural Center in Gijón, Spain, National Theatre of Costa Rica, Heredia Theatre in Colombia, Palace of Fine Arts in The Dominican Republic, as well as at the Concerts at the Crossroads series in Cleveland. Among the groups and artists who have performed his works include the Alianza String Quartet, violinist Jing Wang, pianists Nathan Carterette, Akimi Fukuhara, Marko Pavlovic, Vassily Primakov, soprano Jeanette Vecchione, tenor Ben Sosland, baritone David McFerrin, and conductors Vince Lee and Sung Zin Kim. Most recently, Quentin has been awarded an Honorable Mention for his string quartet “At the Deathbed” at the 2009 Washington International Competition for Composers. His works have been published by New York Classical Press.

Quentin’s teachers have included such distinguished names as Claude Frank, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Philip Lasser (composition), Jerome Lowenthal, Yong Hi Moon, and Soo-Jung Shin. He attended the European American Musical Alliance (Paris), Mozarteum Summer Academy (Austria), Goslar International Concert Workshop (Germany), Prague International Piano Masterclasses (Czech Republic), Pianofest (the Hamptons, New York), and the Music Academy of the West (Santa Barbara, California). Quentin was named a Bachelor of Music by Michigan State University, a Master of Music by The Juilliard School, and was awarded an Artist Diploma from Yale University. He returned to The Juilliard School as a C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow and is now finishing up his doctorate there.

Quentin has also been much involved as a chamber musician, having toured with members of International Sejong Soloists in Korea, and this past fall in the Central and South Americas. He is a frequent guest artist-lecturer at the Dead Pianists Society concert series, hosted by the Hudson Valley Piano Club (New York), and his performances have been broadcasted on WXQR, WCLV, WJFF, and WFMT. Quentin’s piano album “Romantic Tales” (Blue Griffin Recording) has earned him favorable reviews from the media, including the American Record Guide, which praised his “warmth that is always engaging” and exclaimed that “his range of emotion and color is extraordinary.” He is currently serving as a piano instructor for piano classes at The Juilliard School

Updated: SEPTEMBER 2010