Angela Jia Kim

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Pianist Angela Jia Kim has established a unique voice on the classical music scene, bringing the elegant voices of the French masters and luminaries to the public with fresh poeticism. She has performed in great world musical centers, including New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, San Francisco, Warsaw, and Montreal, and has captured the Best Interpretation of French Music Award from the French Piano Institute in Paris, as well as grand prize at the Mozart Festival Competition in Illinois.

Known for her lyrical eloquence and colorful palette at the keyboard, pianist Angela Jia Kim’s artistic richness, classical refinement, and passionate performances delight both critics and audiences alike.

"...an imaginative interpreter... beguiling us with fine shadings...”
       -- Fanfare Magazine

"…a powerhouse pianist with a lot of temperament."
       -- Le Progrès, France

Angela Jia Kim Bio

Known for her lyrical eloquence and colorful palette at the keyboard, pianist, Angela Jia Kim’s (Jia= “jee-ah”) artistic richness, classical refinement, and passionate performances have moved audiences and critics worldwide.  Described by critics as “a superb colorist” with playing that is “full of life and fantasy,” she has delighted audiences 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.”

Angela Jia Kim has established a unique voice on the classical music scene by devoting 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 Ms. 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. These performances have been broadcast on PBS Television, Japan's NHK, Canada’s CBC, Chicago's WMFT-- Dame Myra Hess Concert Series, and Washington D.C.'s Voice of America.

During the 2004-2005 concert season, Angela Jia Kim embarked on a 27-concert tour across the United States with Impressions, Images, and Impromptus, a program featuring works of Schubert, Ravel, Beethoven, Schumann, and Liszt.  During the 2006-07 season, she has been re-engaged for another 25-concert tour across the U.S., which includes performances of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, Mozart Concerto in C Major, K. 567 and recitals of works by Ravel, Beethoven, and Mozart.

Angela Jia Kim’s recordings have received great critical acclaim from the press, public, and radio stations around the world.  Her discography includes a new critically-acclaimed album, entitled From Vienna to Paris (Schubert, Haydn, Schumann, Ravel, and Liszt), which was released in March 2005 on the Miro Classical label. Fanfare Magazine praised her as an "imaginative interpreter... beguiling us with fine shadings... a limpid tone, exquisite balances... painting the music in pastel hues." Her debut CD release, Dances and Fantasies (Scriabin, Mozart, and Ravel), accompanied a tour throughout North America by the same name. Critics at home and abroad praised her "finesse and profound sensitivity" (Le Pays, France).  An all-Mozart album is scheduled to be released in 2006, marking the 250th anniversary of his birth. 

Ms. Kim devotes a significant portion of the season to chamber music performances. Recent highlights include performances alongside Beethoven master pianist, Claude Frank, at the Laguna Beach Chamber Music Festival, 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.” She regularly partners with cellist, Julie Albers, in duo recitals in the United States. A forthcoming cello/piano duo CD with Ms. Albers is scheduled to be released in 2007.

Angela Jia Kim is the subject of a documentary, An Ear for Music: Notes from the Road, which takes a behind-the-scenes look at a pianist’s life on tour and the state of classical music in the United States.  She is also featured in Piano Stories: 101 Inspirational Stories from the World’s Best Pianists, which is written by Susan Derby and scheduled for release in late 2005 by WP Publications. 

Among her collection of prizes, Angela Jia Kim has been recognized for her interpretations of French music and Mozart.  She was honored with the award for Best Interpretation of French Music by the French Piano Institute in Paris, and she won the grand prize at the Mozart Festival Competition in Illinois.

Ms. Kim has performed as orchestral soloist with orchestras across the United States. Following a 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…”

A native of Ames, Iowa, Angela Jia Kim began her piano studies at the age of four with her mother, Hannah Myung Kim. She credits her main musical influences to master pianist, Sergei Babayan, the Dalcroze method, and her other teachers, who include Marc Durand, Lee Kum Sing, Barry Snyder, and Chiu-Ling Lin.  An Eastman School of Music graduate, Ms. Kim currently resides in New York City with her husband and yellow English Labrador, Ella Fitzgerald.  In her free time, she practices yoga and meditation.

Angela Jia Kim is a Yamaha Artist.

Quotes

"...an imaginative interpreter... beguiling us with fine shadings... a limpid tone, exquisite balances, an extremely flexible rubato, and individual (but never eccentric) ideas about pedaling and articulation... painting the music in pastel hues... She plays the Ravel Sonatine, for instance, warmly and graciously, avoiding the chill that more classically-oriented Ravelians give to the music; she's fully alert to the timbral subtleties of the Schubert, subtleties often lost in more rough-hewn performances. She has a good sense of humor, too-- not only in the Haydn, but in the Liszt as well, where she brings out the playful possibilities of the music's contrasts in mood and tone."
                            Fanfare Magazine (March, 2006)

"...Angela Jia Kim's deeply burnished and expressive piano playing... a poetic cushion."
                           Orange County Register, CA (4/14/03)

" Don't be fooled by her delicate and fragile appearance, [Angela Jia Kim] is a powerhouse pianist with a lot of temperament."
                           Le Progrès, France (7/9/03)

[Click Here - Angela Jia Kim Web Site]