Jonah Kim, cellist
2022-2023 Artist-in-Residence
Inaugurated during the 2021-22 season, Festival Mozaic's Artist-in-Residence program helps gifted young musicians become the stars of tomorrow. In this year-long program, resident artists work closely with Music Director Scott Yoo and the staff of Festival Mozaic. Each artist curates and performs a recital and a chamber music program with guests of their choosing, and is featured prominently during the Summer Festival.
Click here to explore all events during the 2022-2023 season, including Jonah Kim's performances.
Jonah Kim is an artist of great charisma and originality. Kim’s beauty of tone is immediately distinguishable by its signature sweetness. He invites the listener in with “the cosy warmth of a well-loved cashmere sweater," (Gramophone) then “dives into the music with courage underpinned by formidable technical prowess, with which he achieves a dazzling performance.” (All About the Arts) “One of the very finest American cellists, he brings out things that you possibly never realized were in [the music]. He has that indefinable “it”. (Art Music Lounge).
Kim made his solo debut with Wolfgang Sawallisch and the Philadelphia Orchestra at 12 years of age. He has soloed with the National Symphony, Atlantic Classical Orchestra, Festival Mozaic Orchestra, Palm Beach Symphony, Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, Stanford Philharmonia, Spokane Symphony, Symphony of the Americas, and many other orchestras. He has appeared on some of the most prestigious stages around the world from New York’s Carnegie & Merkin Halls, Wigmore Hall in London, San Francisco’s Herbst Theater, Bing Hall at Stanford, the stages at Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, to the historic Phillips Collection and the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.
One of Kim’s favorite ways to make music is in a recording studio. His debut album on the Delos label features the great romantic sonatas of Rachmaninoff and Barber with pianist Sean Kennard. It released in 2020 to rave reviews. In 2021, Kim released his second album for Delos, Approaching Autumn, titled after the new American work by Mark Abel bridging behemoths, the Kodaly Solo and the Grieg sonatas. It was received with further critical acclaim for “[capturing] the very elusiveness that gives the music its substance” (Gramophone) and “flawless delivery of its Herculean technical demands” (The Strad). Kim is joined by Robert Koenig on the piano who together “partner beyond perfection… [they] prove to be the ideal interpreters of this music” (All About the Arts).
Kim enjoys collaborating with his friends like conductor/violinist Scott Yoo who hosts the hit PBS docu-series Now Hear This. Aside from Kim’s cameos on the show, they perform and record together at Yoo’s Festival Mozaic. Kim has also worked with Van Cliburn Competition winner Jon Nakamatsu, Chee-Yun Kim (you may recognize her from her cameo on the HBO comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm) and leading members of world-class ensembles such as the Orpheus and New Century chamber orchestras, and the Guarneri and Tokyo Quartets.
Kim’s passion for chamber music stems from his fellowship at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where his ensemble with Joel Link (violinist of the award-winning Dover Quartet) and international piano sensation Yuja Wang performed the piano trio repertoire extensively. Kim’s new ensemble, Trio Barclay, with pianist Sean Kennard and Pacific Symphony concertmaster Dennis Kim, has premiered a new commission for every concert they have played this season. Trio Barclay is in residence at the Barclay Theatre in Orange County, California.
Born in Seoul, South Korea, Kim taught himself the cello watching VHS tapes of Pablo Casals. He was awarded full scholarship to The Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division at the age of seven. Growing up in New York City, he also played for pedagogues like Aldo Parisot and Harvey Shapiro. Kim then became penpals with Janos Starker who invited him to Bloomington just before his ninth birthday. He continued to study with Starker throughout his career at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he enrolled at eleven years of age. Under the supervision of then Dean Robert Fitzpatrick, he was the first fellow ever to train with multiple instructors, receiving lessons from Orlando Cole, Peter Wiley and Lynn Harrell. Kim defines a truly American school of cello by reconciling the Italian, German, Russian, Franco-Spanish and Hungarian lineages.
Kim’s favorite cello is the award winning “Stella” made in San Francisco by Haide Lin in 2016. Stella is paired with a bow made in Paris in 1904 by Jules Fétique. Kim makes his home in San Francisco with his wife, the respected and beloved American ballerina, Julia Rowe.
Jonah Kim, cellist
2022-2023 Artist-in-Residence
Inaugurated during the 2021-22 season, Festival Mozaic's Artist-in-Residence program helps gifted young musicians become the stars of tomorrow. In this year-long program, resident artists work closely with Music Director Scott Yoo and the staff of Festival Mozaic. Each artist curates and performs a recital and a chamber music program with guests of their choosing, and is featured prominently during the Summer Festival.
Click here to explore all events during the 2022-2023 season, including Jonah Kim's performances.
Jonah Kim is an artist of great charisma and originality. Kim’s beauty of tone is immediately distinguishable by its signature sweetness. He invites the listener in with “the cosy warmth of a well-loved cashmere sweater," (Gramophone) then “dives into the music with courage underpinned by formidable technical prowess, with which he achieves a dazzling performance.” (All About the Arts) “One of the very finest American cellists, he brings out things that you possibly never realized were in [the music]. He has that indefinable “it”. (Art Music Lounge).
Kim made his solo debut with Wolfgang Sawallisch and the Philadelphia Orchestra at 12 years of age. He has soloed with the National Symphony, Atlantic Classical Orchestra, Festival Mozaic Orchestra, Palm Beach Symphony, Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, Stanford Philharmonia, Spokane Symphony, Symphony of the Americas, and many other orchestras. He has appeared on some of the most prestigious stages around the world from New York’s Carnegie & Merkin Halls, Wigmore Hall in London, San Francisco’s Herbst Theater, Bing Hall at Stanford, the stages at Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, to the historic Phillips Collection and the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.
One of Kim’s favorite ways to make music is in a recording studio. His debut album on the Delos label features the great romantic sonatas of Rachmaninoff and Barber with pianist Sean Kennard. It released in 2020 to rave reviews. In 2021, Kim released his second album for Delos, Approaching Autumn, titled after the new American work by Mark Abel bridging behemoths, the Kodaly Solo and the Grieg sonatas. It was received with further critical acclaim for “[capturing] the very elusiveness that gives the music its substance” (Gramophone) and “flawless delivery of its Herculean technical demands” (The Strad). Kim is joined by Robert Koenig on the piano who together “partner beyond perfection… [they] prove to be the ideal interpreters of this music” (All About the Arts).
Kim enjoys collaborating with his friends like conductor/violinist Scott Yoo who hosts the hit PBS docu-series Now Hear This. Aside from Kim’s cameos on the show, they perform and record together at Yoo’s Festival Mozaic. Kim has also worked with Van Cliburn Competition winner Jon Nakamatsu, Chee-Yun Kim (you may recognize her from her cameo on the HBO comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm) and leading members of world-class ensembles such as the Orpheus and New Century chamber orchestras, and the Guarneri and Tokyo Quartets.
Kim’s passion for chamber music stems from his fellowship at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where his ensemble with Joel Link (violinist of the award-winning Dover Quartet) and international piano sensation Yuja Wang performed the piano trio repertoire extensively. Kim’s new ensemble, Trio Barclay, with pianist Sean Kennard and Pacific Symphony concertmaster Dennis Kim, has premiered a new commission for every concert they have played this season. Trio Barclay is in residence at the Barclay Theatre in Orange County, California.
Born in Seoul, South Korea, Kim taught himself the cello watching VHS tapes of Pablo Casals. He was awarded full scholarship to The Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division at the age of seven. Growing up in New York City, he also played for pedagogues like Aldo Parisot and Harvey Shapiro. Kim then became penpals with Janos Starker who invited him to Bloomington just before his ninth birthday. He continued to study with Starker throughout his career at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he enrolled at eleven years of age. Under the supervision of then Dean Robert Fitzpatrick, he was the first fellow ever to train with multiple instructors, receiving lessons from Orlando Cole, Peter Wiley and Lynn Harrell. Kim defines a truly American school of cello by reconciling the Italian, German, Russian, Franco-Spanish and Hungarian lineages.
Kim’s favorite cello is the award winning “Stella” made in San Francisco by Haide Lin in 2016. Stella is paired with a bow made in Paris in 1904 by Jules Fétique. Kim makes his home in San Francisco with his wife, the respected and beloved American ballerina, Julia Rowe.