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Minju Kim, violin/viola
Minju Kim leads a diverse musical life as an educator, performer, and arts advocate. As an active chamber and orchestral musician throughout North America and abroad, Kim has made appearances at festivals such as Festival de Febrero, Artosphere Music Festival, Strings Music Festival, Britt Festival, IMS Prussia Cove, and Caroga Lake Music Festival. Her diverse interests have taken her to perform extensively with ensembles such as Jankovic Ensemble for string quartet and guitar and Khemia Ensemble and her performances have been broadcast on media such as American Public Media’s Performance Today and WCLV. She is the second violin principal of CityMusic Cleveland, former acting concertmistress of Evansville Philharmonic, and has played with The Cleveland Orchestra and Akron Symphony among others. She has collaborated with members of The Cleveland Orchestra, Cavani Quartet, Manhattan Chamber Players, Gryphon Trio, Met Opera, and others.
Kim serves as faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music Preparatory Program and Festival del Lago, and as the chair of string area and assistant professor of violin and viola at the University of Akron School of Music. In the past, she taught at Encore Chamber Music, Community Music School at Oberlin College, IU Summer String Academy and as an assistant instructor at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
Uniting her passion for arts education and social advocacy, Kim founded and directs Third Culture Ensemble which brings professional musicians, music students, local arts and social organizations together to serve diverse communities through music. The organization is committed to programming diverse repertoire, bringing communities together, and broadening the classical music concert experience.
Kim received her Doctor of Music at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she was a recipient of the Assistant Instructor Fellowship and Artistic Excellence Award, studying under GrigoryKalinovsky, Mauricio Fuks, and the late Ik-Hwan Bae. As a music education minor, she dedicated her time in Indiana to teaching in various public educational settings including Habitat4Music and Fairview Violin Project serving underperforming or underfunded public schools through extracurricular music education programs. Bringing focus to works by living female composers, Kim wrote her doctoral dissertation on a set of string quartets by Pulitzer Prize winner and composer, Caroline Shaw. Kim studied with Paul Kantor at the Cleveland Institute of Music where she completed her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees and with Henri Gronnier at the Colburn School pre-college program.
Kim also brings her background as a certified ELDOA practitioner and a long-time yoga enthusiast into the music world. She is passionate about educating musicians on mind, body, and health; injury preventions; and becoming a well-rounded musician. She gives regular ELDOA workshops at music institutions and summer festivals. Away from music, she enjoys hiking, running, practicing yoga, nutritious cooking, museums, movies, and being in nature.