As of December 1994

Chee-Yun Kim, violin

Violinist Chee-Yun´s combination of flawless technique, beautiful tone and compelling musical temperament has quickly captured the attention of the music world. Her brilliant artistry has been shared with audiences and praised by critics on five continents.

Career highlights include appearances at the Kennedy Center´s Salute to Slava gala honoring its departing Music Director, Mstislav Rostropovich, the Mostly Mozart Festival including the orchestra´s tour to Japan, the Pacific Music Festival with Michael Tilson Thomas in a premiere of Lou Harrison´s Suite for Violin and String Orchestra and at the first concert at the newly opened Danny Kaye Playhouse in New York City.

Chee-Yun has recently made her debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the National Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the New York Chamber Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic and the Cincinnati Symphony. Overseas, she has made numerous tours with such orchestras as the Haifa Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic and Germany´s Braunschweig Orchestra and the NDR Radio Leipzig.

She has appeared with Yoel Levi and the Atlanta Symphony, Pinchas Zukerman and the Orchestra of St. Luke´s at Alice Tully Hall, at the Aspen Music Festival, with the London Philharmonic, the St. Petersburg Camerata, the Bamberg Philharmonic, the Bilbao Symphony, the NHK Symphony, the Nagoya Philharmonic, KBS Symphony Orchestra and the Seoul Philharmonic. Furthermore, she has played with the orchestras of Richmond, San Diego, San Antonio, Phoenix, Memphis, Knoxville, Honolulu, North Carolina among many other leading ensembles in North America, Europe and the Far East.

Highlights of her 1999/2000 season include a national tour with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, her debut with the Oregon Symphony (James DePreist conducting) and the Utah Symphony (Keith Lockhart conducting), and performances of Krzysztof Penderecki´s Second Violin Concerto with the composer on the podium both in the US and Europe. Of special interest is her participation in the American Ballet Theatre´s Fall Gala with Principal Dancers of the company. She returns to Japan for a tour with the NHK Symphony and Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra. This season also marks the third Spoleto Festival USA chamber music tour, a project she has been associated with since its´ inception.

As a recitalist, Chee-Yun has performed in many major cities including New York, Chicago, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Atlanta. Committed to chamber music, she has toured with Music from Marlboro, has appeared frequently at Spoleto/USA and most recently performed at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, the Colorado Festival in Boulder and at the Bridgehampton Festival on Long Island.

Chee-Yun has received exceptional acclaim as an exclusive Denon recording artist. Her debut, an album of virtuoso encore pieces, was released in March 1993, followed by a disc of three French violin sonatas (Debussy, Saint-Saëns and Fauré). Her third recording released in the fall of 1994 included the Mendelssohn E Minor Violin Concerto and Vieuxtemps´ Violin Concerto No. 5 under the baton of Jesus Lopez-Cobos with the London Philharmonic. It was this disc that prompted Ivan March of Gramophone to write the following: `Chee-Yun´s Mendelssohn, full of sparkle and imagination, goes readily to the top of the list of recommended versions. Her tone is sweet and full, her playing wonderfully polished, her feeling for Mendelssohn´s line and phrase quite extraordinarily sure.´ Disc four includes the Violin Sonatas of Szymanowski and Franck. Her latest release includes Lalo´s Symphony Espagnole and the Saint Saëns Concerto No. 3 under the direction of Maestro Lopez-Cobos with the London Philharmonic. October 1999 will see the re-release of her debut recording with new material and special guests.

She has been heard frequently on National Public Radio´s Performance Today and on WQXR and WNYC radio in New York City where she makes her home. She has also been featured on KTV, a children´s program on the cable network CNBC, Garrison Keillor´s A Prairie Home Companion on Public Radio International and numerous syndicated and local radio programs across the United States and abroad. Currently she can be seen on PBS as a special guest on Victor Borge Then and Now 3. In July of 1996 Chee-Yun participated in a live broadcast at Spivey Hall in Atlanta concurrent with the Olympic Games for Performance Today. In June and September 1997 she was seen on ESPN performing the theme for the X Games. Currently in production, Chee-Yun will be featured in an upcoming documentary for KBS (Korean television).

Chee-Yun´s first public performance, at age 8, took place in her native Seoul after she won the Grand Prize of the Korean Times Competition. At age 13, she came to the United States and was invited to perform the Vieuxtemps Concerto No. 5 in a Young People´s Concert with the New York Philharmonic. In 1985, she appeared as soloist with the New York String Orchestra under Alexander Schneider at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

In Korea, Chee-Yun studied with Nam Yun Kim. Since coming to this country, she has worked with Dorothy DeLay, Hyo Kang and Felix Galimir (for chamber music) at the Juilliard School.

Chee-Yun has been the recipient of numerous awards including the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant (1990), a winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions (1989) and was nominated for Best Debut in the first annual Cannes Classical Awards at the MIDEM international music convention (1994).

In 1993, Chee-Yun returned to Korea to receive the Nan Pa award, the country´s highest musical honor. She was honored in a different manner in the United States, when she was invited to perform at the White House for President Bill Clinton and his guests in honor of the recipients of the National Medal of the Arts.

Click HERE to visit Chee-Yun's personal Web site.