Ariana Kim

Noted by the New York Times for giving "the proceedings an invaluable central thread of integrity and stylishness” and having “played with soulful flair,” violinist Ariana Kim made her New York recital debut at Carnegie's Weill Hall in 2008 as the recipient of a prestigious Artists International Award, and is now a professor at Cornell University. She served an interim season as concertmaster of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra in New Orleans, and for three years on the faculty of the University of Indianapolis. Ariana has made extensive solo and collaborative appearances that have taken her to stages throughout the United States, Asia, Europe, and South Africa; at the age of 11, Ariana made her debut as an orchestral soloist and has since become one of the most respected young artists of her generation.

An avid chamber musician of both the contemporary and traditional literature, Ariana now marks her 10th season as a member of the New Yorker-acclaimed new music ensemble, Ne(x)tworks, with whom she improvises, performs, composes, and records. Their debut CD of Earle Brown chamber works for Mode Records has now been followed by two self-release albums. In 2013, they made their international debut at the John Cage Festival in Berlin performing Cage’s “Song Books” to a packed house alongside the Maulwerker Company. Ariana finds another musical home in her native Twin Cities as she is now in her 11th season with the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota, where recent collaborations have included performances with pianist Leon Fleisher, violinist Robert Mann, cellists Fred Sherry and Peter Wiley, violist Nobuko Imai, and clarinetist Charles Neidich. Ariana now marks her 10th season with The Knights, a New York-based imaginative and diverse flux ensemble that performs programs ranging from string quartets to bluegrass tunes and Mid-East folk music, to the great chamber orchestra masterpieces of the 20th century. In January of 2015, the group released its seventh album, …the ground beneath our feet – a collection of live performances from a recent U.S. tour – for Warner Classics, on which Ariana is a featured soloist in Steve Reich’s Duo for two violins and strings, alongside Guillaume Pirard. The track has since been chosen as one of NPR’s “Songs We Love” for 2015.

A passionate pedagogue, Ariana spends much of the academic year teaching and mentoring a full studio of talented collegiate students at Cornell; she will join the faculty of the Palo Alto Chamber Music Workshop for the 13th consecutive year, the Northern Lights Chamber Music Institute for the eighth time, and the Crowden Music Center Chamber Music Institute for the first time this coming summer.

Currently, Ariana co-resides in Ithaca, NY and New York City where she received her doctorate from Juilliard under the tutelage of Robert Mann. Upcoming engagements include a European tour and performances at the Ravinia and Tanglewood festivals with The Knights, and as a recipient of an Affinito-Stewart Grant, she will release her first solo album of works by American women in November of 2015.