Haeji Kim (‘97), despite having grown up in Bloomfield Hills, MI, originates from Flushing, NY. She has appeared as a soloist with the Dearborn, Marquette, Northern Lights Music Festival, and Rochester Symphony Orchestras. She has also participated in the New York String Orchestra Seminar at Carnegie Hall in 2012 as a violinist and in 2014 as principal violist. Other honors include first prize at the New York Young Music Artists auditions, leading to a solo debut at Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, prize winner at the National Federation of Music Clubs Stillman Kelley Competition, and grand prize in the solo competition of the Michigan chapter of the American String Teachers Association. Some of her summer studies have been at the Summit Music Festival, Cambridge International String Academy, Center Stage Strings, and as a fellow at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute. She has also worked with renown artists such as Midori, Rodney Friend, Ida Haendel, Kim Kashkashian, Antoine Tamestit, Misha Amory, Paul Biss, Pam Frank, and Atar Arad.
She began violin lessons with Sharon Rothstein at age six, switching to the viola at age sixteen. Her teachers have included Dmitri Berlinsky, Geoffrey Applegate, Almita & Roland Vamos, Aaron Rosand & Christina Khimm, Danae Witter, Stephen Shipps and Caroline Coade of the University of Michigan. She was drawn to the viola by its depth of the C string while experiencing it first-hand during orchestra at her high school in measures 23 & 24 of the 4th mvt of Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique” and greatly appreciates in a way, the viola bridges the violin and cello worlds on a broader scale. It also settles her sentiments of desiring to have played the cello as well. She aspires to break common violistic stereotypes and also expand the semi-limited repertoire by arranging current classic works and also by studying the layout of the instrument so that these “different versions” may be appropriately fitting.
Kim’s passion for Brahms, Beethoven, and German composers lies deep in her bones and she is growing to appreciate and love Bach more and more by the day. Nonetheless, she takes joy in exploring and learning and appreciates a variety of composers and genres, just having been involved in the Kurtag and Ligeti (Sonatas for Solo Viola) projects at school last year. Outside of the practice room, Haeji indulges in photography, ping pong, nature, snow (when in season), walking the dogs in the window of the pet shop down the street, late night food and bubble tea explorations, and occasional cooking attempts.
Kim’s future engagements include joining Pam Frank, Shmuel Ashkenasi, and others at the Evnin Rising Stars program this coming October 2016 for a “week of intense collaboration and musical discovery where distinguished artist/mentors pass on the great masterworks of the chamber music repertoire to a new generation of outstanding talent”, culminating in two concerts in Caramoor, NY. In the following January, she will be returning to her hometown in Michigan to collaborate with her beloved teacher, Pauline Martin, and other distinguished faculty as part of Chamber Soloists of Detroit’s second concert of the season. She is in her second year, studying with Roberto Díaz and Hsin-Yun Huang, as a Susan Dewar DeCamp Annual Fellow at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, PA. Currently, she is playing on a 2012 model by Joseph Grubaugh & Sigrun Seifert through a generous scholarship grant from the Virtu Foundation.