Jia Kim

Jia Kim (BM ’11, MM ’13, cello), recipient of the 2017 career grant from the Leonore Annenberg Foundation for Performing and Visual Arts, leads a dynamic musical life as a performer, educator, and a passionate advocate for the arts. She has appeared on stages across the U.S., South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, with performances broadcast on WQXR, PBS, and KMZT Classical.

As an active performer, Kim has collaborated with artists including Itzhak Perlman, Robert Mann, Kim Kashkashian, Frans Helmerson, Robert Spano, Emmanuel Villaume, John Williams, and members of the Juilliard, Cleveland, Takács, and Orion quartets. She has also made guest appearances with the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO), the Knights, and A Far Cry. She has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher (now Geffen) and Alice Tully halls, Chicago Symphony Center's Orchestra Hall, Arsht Center in Miami, Valle De Bravo in Mexico, Royal Conservatory in Toronto, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Barclays Center, and Al-Hussein Cultural Center at the National Music Conservatory of Jordan.

A devoted educator, Kim has worked with students from the Cleveland Institute of Music, American Academy of Jordan, Tel Aviv Conservatory of Music, Grand Valley State University, and University of Hawaii, and served as a tone judge for the 2016 Violin Society of America Competition.

Kim, who is the cellist of the award-winning Aeolus Quartet, serves on the faculties of Juilliard Pre-College, Mannes School of Music, Perlman Music Program, and New York Youth Symphony’s Chamber Music program. As artistic director of Chamber Music Stowe in Vermont and Central Chamber Series in NYC, Kim is committed to connecting with a wider audience through the powerful language of chamber music. She is grateful to her mentors and teachers Ronald Leonard, Toby and Itzhak Perlman, and Joel Krosnick, with whom she studied at Juilliard. Kim performs on a Testore cello made in 1748 and a cello by Samuel Zygmuntowicz.