The appreciative audience seemed to sink into the beauty and challenge of the music. There were moments of dissonance and tension and others of mellifluousness that begged us to shut our eyes and dream.
-The Boston Globe-
Cellist Min-Ji Kim made her US debut in 2003, winning the Astral Artistic Services National Audition. At the age of 16, she entered Korea National University of Arts as a young prodigy. Upon the completion of her undergraduate degree in 2000, Ms. Kim went on to attend New England Conservatory, where she successfully completed her Masterâs Degree, Artist Diploma and Graduate Diploma under full scholarship. In 2005, she was selected to receive the scholarship offered by Huntington Beebe Fellowship and was able to complete Professional Performance Degree at Toulouse Conservatoire.
In Korea, Ms. Kim received first prizes in music competitions held by Dong-Ah Newspaper, Joong-Ang Newspaper, Han-Kook Newspaper and Cho-Sun Newspaper and also won grand prix awards at Nan-Pa Music Competition and Seoul Youth Music Competition held by KBS. Also, she was the first Korean to receive scholarship from the world-renowned Emmanuelle Foyer International Cello Competition out of the 12 participants invited from around the world. She won 2nd place at the Premio Arturo Bonucci International Cello Competition in Italy, 3rd place at the Adam International Cello Competition, grand prix awards at the Hudson Valley String Competition, New England Conservatory String Competition and HAMS International Cello Competition. Not only did she release her music as the winner, she also won the first prize and an additional prize for Best Performance of the Commissioned Work at Irving M. Klein International String Competition. Ms. Kim performed with many orchestras around the world and also performed several solo recitals at the Philadelphia Kimmer, Trinity Center, Jordan Hall in Boston and Gardner Museum in Boston. Her live recital was also broadcasted on the Chicago Myra Hess Concert Series and WMFT Chicago Radio station.
Ms. Kim has been invited to collaborate with major orchestras both in Korea and from around the world, such as the Haddonfield Symphony, Hudson Valley Symphony, Marin Symphony, Santa Cruz Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, KBS Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra, Wonju Philharmonic Orchestra, Incheon Philharmonic Orchestra, Cheongju Philharmonic Orchestra, Gunsan Philharmonic Orchestra, Chungnam Philharmonic Orchestra, Daegu MBC Symphony Orchestra, Gangnam Symphony Orchestra and more, where she continued to strengthen her career as a soloist.
She also participated in the complete Beethoven symphonies and concertos at the Seoul Arts Center with the Principal Conductor Dae-Jin Kim and the Suwon Philharmonic, performed complete Beethoven-Brahms series with world-renowned pianist Dong-Il Han and successfully completed the national tour recital with Tae-Hyeong Kim, who is considered to be the representative pianist of the next generation. As well as continuing to perform actively, holding a successful recital with Ilya Rashkovsky, a great young maestro from Russia, for example, she was also invited to symphony festival to collaborate with Cheongju Philharmonic Orchestra where she reaffirmed her position as a soloist.
She was the first Asian to serve as the Assistant Principal of Reina Sofia Orchestra led by Lorin Mazzel and she also the Festival Orchestra prodigy at Seoul Arts Center and a professor at KyeMyung University. Currently, she is the Music Director of Deoksugung Palace Seokjojeon Classical Concert, the Principal of the Cellista Cello Ensemble and a professor of instrumental music at the College of Music, Seoul National University.