Dennis Kim
A citizen of the world, Dennis Kim was born in Korea, raised in Canada and educated in the United States. He has spent over a decade leading orchestras in the United States, Europe and Asia.
At 22, Kim was appointed concertmaster of the Tucson Symphony. He was then appointed as the youngest concertmaster in the history of the Hong Kong Philharmonic before going on to be the youngest concertmaster of the Seoul Philharmonic. Kim then became the first foreign concertmaster of the Tampere Philharmonic in Finland. Before moving to California, he was the concertmaster of the Buffalo Philharmonic in New York. As guest concertmaster, Kim has performed on four continents, leading the American Ballet Theater Orchestra, BBC Symphony, London Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Qatar Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lille, KBS Symphony, Montpelier Symphony, Malaysian Philharmonic, Western Australia Symphony and Symphony Orchestra of Navarra.
A dedicated teacher, Kim is the Assistant Professor of Violin at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at the University of California, Irvine. This summer, he joins the National Orchestral Academy of Canada faculty and the Interlochen Center for the Arts as Valade Concertmaster in the World Youth Symphony Orchestra. Previously he was on the Royal Conservatory of Music faculty in Toronto, the Korean National University of the Arts, Yonsei University, Tampere Conservatory, and the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts. In the summers, Kim has taught and performed at the summer program, Bowdoin International Music Festival, and the Atlantic Music Festival. His students have been accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music, Colburn School, Juilliard School, Peabody Conservatory and the Queen Elizabeth College of Music. Former students play in orchestras worldwide, including the Seoul Philharmonic, KBS Symphony, Monte-Carlo Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lille, and the Pacific Symphony.
In addition to serving as concertmaster of the Pacific Symphony, Dennis Kim has been a member of the Mainly Mozart All-Star Orchestra and concertmaster of the Peninsula Festival Orchestra in Wisconsin. Kim also performs regularly in the studio orchestras of Hollywood, working with prominent composers such as John Williams and Alan Menken. He can be heard on movies such as Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker, The Lego Movie 2, Toy Story 4, Transformers VII, and TV shows like Bridgerton and The Mandalorian.
As a champion of music written in the present day, Kim has commissioned and performed numerous works with orchestra and chamber ensembles. He commissioned Violin Concerto No. 1 from Sheridan Seyfried and premiered it with the Tampere Philharmonic. He recently performed a violin concerto commissioned by John Wineglass with the Pacific Symphony. Over the last few seasons, Kim was a guest soloist with the Lebanon Philharmonic and the Orchestra NOW, with repertoire ranging from Mozart and Haydn to Glass and Penderecki.
An active chamber musician, Kim is the violinist of Trio Barclay, the first Ensemble-in-Residence of the Irvine Barclay Theatre. Trio Barclay has made it their mission to commission new works by living composers, including John Wineglass, Sheridan Seyfried, Sebastian Chang, and Fernando Arroyo García-Lascurain. Trio Barclay has been invited to perform at the Busan International Chamber Music Festival, Festival Mozaic in San Luis Obispo, and Stetson University in Florida. Kim is also a frequent collaborator with pianist Orli Shaham on the Cafe Ludwig series.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and Yale School of Music, Kim's teachers include Jaime Laredo, Aaron Rosand, Peter Oundjian, Paul Kantor, Victor Danchenko and Yumi Ninomiya Scott. He plays the 1701 ex-Dushkin Stradivarius and a modern bow made by Korean bow maker Yongje Song on permanent loan from a generous donor.
