HEIDI KIM

VIOLINIST

PERFORMER

American violinist Heidi Kim has concertized extensively as a soloist, chamber musician, interdisciplinary collaborator, and orchestral musician. She made her Carnegie Hall solo debut at the National Band & Orchestra Festival and her international debut at the London New Year’s Day Parade Festival. Other festival appearances include the Chautauqua Institution, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Michigan Youth Arts Festival, Project Trio! The Camp, PhoenixPhest!, Conservatory Music in the Mountains, among others. She has also frequently performed in other notable venues such as The Herbst Theatre, Palace of Fine Arts, Fairmont San Francisco, Grace Cathedral, San Francisco City Hall, ODC Theater, Alonzo King LINES | Dance Center, SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center, Golden 1 Center, Severance Hall, Playhouse Square, and Detroit Orchestra Hall.

In the Bay Area, she is frequently seen performing with One Found Sound, the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera, Kathy Mata Ballet, and Classical Revolution. She was previously a musician for Friday Night Live at the Laughing Lotus Yoga Center, and the Memory Care residents of Rhoda Goldman Plaza. She has also held the positions of Musician-in-Residence at Ballet in Cleveland, concertmaster of the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra and the Chagrin Falls Studio Orchestra, as well as core member of the Cleveland Opera Theater Orchestra.

Kim has toured with Andrea Bocelli and Ballets with a Twist, and has been a part of revolutionary projects such as a cross-sensual concert experience with the International Culinary Arts and Sciences Institute combining taste and sound, under the baton of Deanna Tham, and an improvisational piece titled Detritus at WStage Seoul with artists Soeine Bac and Bohyung Jun.

She is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the San Francisco Community Music Center Creative Stimulus and Artist Support Grant for Faculty (The Twinkle Project - see Video section), Robert C.J. Traub Memorial Scholarship for music study in Europe, National School Orchestra Award, and is a National YoungArts Foundation nominee.

A native of Detroit, Heidi Kim began her violin studies at age 6 and piano at age 8. She completed her undergraduate studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Joan Kwuon and holds an Artist Diploma in Orchestral Studies from the San Francisco Academy Orchestra, where she studied with San Francisco Symphony violinist Melissa Kleinbart. Other influential mentors include Peter Salaff, Gabriel Bolkosky, and Patricia Pats Gurin. This fall, she will be studying with Akiko Ono at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama for a Master's in Violin Performance.

She currently performs on a 2007 copy of a Guadagnini by contemporary violinmaker Gregg Alf, with a new set-up by Thomas Yee at Bay Fine Strings. Previously she played a ca. 1740 violin of the French Vieux School on generous loan from Bay Fine Strings. When not playing or teaching, Heidi can be found dancing with Kathy Mata Ballet, attending performances and art galleries, and walking along the beach.

TEACHER

A passionate educator, Heidi Kim is currently on the violin and viola faculty at the San Francisco Community Music Center (CMC). A former CMC Chamber Music Camp Director, she has also served on the faculty of the Interlochen Arts Camp and Cleveland School of the Arts.

HK Studio presents monthly outreach concerts through partnerships with local community organizations and businesses, a list that includes the Nancy and Stephen Grand Family House for UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital patients (Mission Bay), On Lok Lifeways Clinic at 30th Street (Glen Park), VA Medical Center (Sea Cliff), SF Fire Department Station 14 (Outer Richmond), Argonne Elementary School (Inner Richmond), Cypress at Golden Gate (Outer Sunset), San Francisco Towers (Nob Hill), Pinhole Coffee (Bernal Heights), PRAIRIE (the Mission), Rhoda Goldman Plaza (Fillmore), San Francisco Parks and Recreation's Christmas Relays (Lake Merced), and Heritage on the Marina (Marina). HK Studio hopes to share their love of music with every single neighborhood in San Francisco.

Her students consistently place in local competitions, earn leading seats in the annual San Francisco All-City Orchestra and their school orchestras, and have been accepted to the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts.