Angela Jia Kim

Described by critics as “a superb colorist” with playing that is “full of life and fantasy,” pianist Angela Jia Kim has delighted audiences around the world in recital, orchestral, and chamber music performances.  Maria Curcio, the eminent protégée of Artur Schnabel, described Angela Jia Kim as “a real virtuoso of the instrument… [with] astonishing artistry at the keyboard.” 

In a time of increasing sameness in styles and cultures, Angela Jia Kim has devoted herself to the subtle shades of the great French masters, classicists, and other luminaries of the piano literature, bringing their elegant voices to the public with freshness and poeticism. Critics and audiences have responded, and Angela Jia Kim has been engaged and re-engaged in many of the world's great musical centers including New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, San Francisco, Paris, Warsaw, Toronto, and Montreal. Angela Jia Kim’s performances have been broadcast on PBS Television (Studio III Presents Angela Jia Kim), Japan's NHK telecast throughout Asia, CBC Radio nationwide, Chicago's WMFT- Dame Myra Hess Concert Series, New York's WNYC, and Washington D.C.'s Voice of America. 

Recent season highlights include performances alongside Beethoven master pianist Claude Frank, for which a reviewer from the Orange County Register praised Angela Jia Kim’s “deeply burnished and expressive piano playing…” and described her as “a poetic cushion.”   A 2001 performance in Burgundy, France created such a stir that prominent members of the audience founded Festival Jeune Talents, an international music festival in which Angela Jia Kim was invited to be the cornerstone guest artist.  In 2003, she released her “Dances and Fantasies” debut album (MCR Records) that accompanied a tour throughout North America by the same name. Critics at home and abroad praised her "finesse and profound sensitivity" (Le Pays, France). 

During the 2004-2005 concert season, she will embark on a 25-city concert tour across the United States with “Impressions, Images, and Impromptus”, a program featuring works of Schubert, Ravel, Beethoven, Schumann, and Liszt.  A new album entitled “From Vienna to Paris” with works of Schubert, Haydn, and Ravel is scheduled for release in January 2005.  Angela Jia Kim will also be featured in “Piano Stories: 101 Inspirational Stories from the World’s Best Pianists” by Susan Derby, which will be available in early 2005 by WP Publications.

Among her collection of prizes, Angela Jia Kim was honored with the award for Best Interpretation of French Music by the French Piano Institute in Paris.  She has also been recognized for her interpretations of Mozart by winning the grand prize at the Mozart Festival Competition in Illinois.  In addition, she was a prize winner at the Début Young Concert Artist Competition and has been the recipient of awards from the New York Arts Council.

Angela Jia Kim has performed as an orchestral soloist with the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra, St. John’s Chamber Players, and the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra, among others.  Following her performance of the Grieg Concerto, a critic from the Waterloo Courier wrote, “Electrifying… with great delicacy and rich colors… Kim’s playing of the concerto was the best I have ever heard… She played with as much feeling as any pianist I have ever heard.”

A native of Ames, Iowa, Angela Jia Kim's first musical experiences came at the age of four, studying piano with her mother, Hannah Myung Kim. By age five, she was already winning awards, performed her first recital, and had begun her violin studies. At eight, she was invited to perform Mozart at an international festival at Chicago's Auditorium Theatre. Her teachers include Marc Durand, Lee Kum Sing, Barry Snyder, and Chiu-Ling Lin. She has also received intensive coaching from master pianist Sergei Babayan. An Eastman School of Music graduate, Angela Jia Kim currently resides in New York City and in her free time, she indulges in her passion for yoga, meditation, baking, and learning foreign languages.