Min Kim

Conductor

Min Kim is one of the leading concert violinists of Korea and highly respected for his versatility as a soloist, chamber musician, educator and concertmaster. He was born in Seoul and graduated from the Seoul National University and studied at the Staatlische Hochschule fьr Musik in Hamburg under the guidance of Wilfried Hanke and Thomas Brandis as a student on a DAAD scholarship. While studying in Germany, he performed frequently in international concert tours of such orchestras as Kцln Chamber Orchestra, N.D.R Orchestra in Hamburg, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. After returning to Korea in 1979 , he was appointed to a concertmaster of the Korean Philharmonic Orchestra and the KBS Symphony Orchestra. He also took over the leadership of the Korean Chamber Orchestra and was appointed the faculty at College of Music, Seoul National University.

Min Kim, in his capacity as the music director and concertmaster, has led the Korean Chamber Orchestra to one of the most successful chamber orchestras in Korea and has taken it on numerous, highly successful international tours. Among the recent highlights are the U.S.-Canada tour(1995), UNESCO Peace Concert(1999), UN Staff day Concert(2000), during 2000-2010, Rheingau Festival(Germany), Naantali Music Festival(Finland), Beethoven Easter Festival(Poland), International Mozart Festival(Estonia) and Speyer Festival(Germany). Until 2011, KCO is engaged more concerts in several famous festivals of Europe.

He is the first Korean presented the appreciation plaque from Wolfgang Wagner, Director of the Bayreuth Festival for his consecutive 20 years of participation in the festival(2002). The Polish Government honored him by “Merit of Culture from the Republic of Poland” for his contribution to cultural exchanges between two countries(2007). He is also the first Korean awarded “Una vita per la Musica” from the President of  Italy(2009).

He has been a member of the jury in numerous international competitions such as Wieniawski competition(Poland, 1997-2006), Tchaikovsky competition for young musicians (1996, 2002, 2009), Sendai competition(Japan, 2004), Leopold-Mozart competition(Germany, 2006), Markneukirchen competition (Germany, 2007), China international competition(2008) and Queen Elizabeth competition(2009, Belgium). He is invited again to Queen Elizabeth Competition in 2012.

He served as Dean of the College of Music at Seoul National University for six years (1999-2005). Currently he is an emeritus professor of Seoul National University and serving as a music director of Korean Chamber Orchestra and Seoul Isang Yun Ensemble.