Clara-Jumi Kang

Biography

Violinist Clara-Jumi Kang is an artist of supreme musicality, impeccable refinement

and poise as borne out by the many awards and accolades she has received since

she won 1st prize at the Indianapolis International Violin Competition in 2010, Sendai Violin Competition (2010) and the Seoul Violin Competition (2009). Her cycle of Beethoven Violin Sonatas with pianist Sunwook Kim which was released on Accentus last season has received outstanding reviews and nominations.

Upcoming highlights of the 23/24 season include her Edinburgh Festival solo recital

debut, as well as debuts with the Israel Philharmonic as part of the Côte-Saint-André Festival under Music Director Lahav Shani, with whom she will also make her

Budapest Festival Orchestra debut, the LA Philharmonic as part of the Hollywood

Bowl Festival, and the Cincinnati and Detroit Symphony Orchestras. Kang will also

return to the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Auckland Philharmonia, and tour South Korea

with the Munich Philharmonic under the baton of Myung-whun Chung. As a recitalist, Kang regularly performs at the world’s most prestigious halls, and will make her Wigmore Hall debut next season, and return to the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées for two concerts.

Recent highlights include her debut at the Proms with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Ryan Bancroft, and performances with the Royal Stockholm

Philharmonic, Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and Taipei Symphony.

She made her concerto debut with Hamburg Symphony at the age of five and has

since performed with orchestras including the Warsaw Philharmonic, Kremerata

Baltica, Mariinsky Orchestra, Orchestre National de Belgique, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia and the St.Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, with conductors such as Bancroft, Boreyko, Bringuier, Chung, Fedoseyev, P Järvi, Lü Jia, Märkl, Mena, Poppen, Roth,

Temirkanov and Yamada.

Further afield, her performances have taken her to the USA with the Atlanta, New

Jersey, Indianapolis and Santa Fe Symphony Orchestras, as well as Asia with the

NHK Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, NCPA Beijing Orchestra, Macao Philharmonic and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestras. She was selected as one of the top 100 “Most promising and influential people of Korea” in 2012 by major Korean newspaper Dong-A Times and was awarded the Daewon Music Award (2012) for her outstanding international achievements as well as Kumho Musician of the Year

(2015).

Clara-Jumi Kang has made two recordings for Decca: “Modern Solo” featuring works including Schubert’s “Last Rose”, “Erlkönig” and Ysaÿe Sonatas, and a

Brahms/Schumann album with Yeol-Eum Son.

A devoted chamber musician, she regularly visits chamber music festivals and

collaborates with renowned musicians including Janine Jansen, Gidon Kremer and

Mischa Maisky.

Born in Germany to a musical family, Clara-Jumi Kang took up the violin at the age of three and a year later enrolled as the youngest ever student at the Mannheim

Musikhochschule. She went on to study with Zakhar Bron at the Lübeck

Musikhochschule and at the age of seven was awarded a full scholarship to the

Julliard School to study with Dorothy Delay. She took her Bachelor and Masters

degrees at the Korean National University of Arts under Nam-Yun Kim before

completing her studies at the Munich Musikhochschule with Christoph Poppen.

Clara-Jumi Kang plays on the 1702 "Thunis" Stradivarius.