Clara-Jumi Kang

Violinist Clara-Jumi Kang is an artist of supreme musicianship, impeccable refinement, and poise, as evidenced by the numerous awards and honors she has received since bursting onto the scene by winning the Indianapolis International Violin Competition in 2010, following successes at the Seoul Violin Competition (2009) and the Sendai Violin Competition (2010).

Her cycle of Beethoven violin sonatas with pianist Sunwook Kim, released by Accentus last season, received excellent reviews and nominations.

Recent and current highlights include:

• Proms debut with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Ryan Bancroft in the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto
• Concerts with the Gurzenich Orchester/Roth
• Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen/P Järvi
• Royal Stockholm Philharmonic/Denève
• City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Schwarz
• Munich Philharmonic Orchestra/Chung and BBC Philharmonic Orchestra/Mena
• Australian tour with the Melbourne Symphony, Auckland Philharmonia, 
West Australian Symphony Orchestra and KBS Symphony Orchestra

She made her concert debut with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra at the age of five and has since performed with orchestras such as the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Cologne Chamber Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Mariinsky Orchestra, National Orchestra of Belgium, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra with conductors such as Boreyko, Fedoseyev, Gergiev, Kremer, Mena, Poppen, François Xavier Roth, Varga, Lü Jia, Chung, Holliger, Märkl, and Yamada.

Further afield, she has performed in the United States with the Atlanta, New Jersey, Indianapolis, and Santa Fe symphony orchestras, as well as in Asia with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, NCPA Beijing Orchestra, Macau Philharmonic Orchestra, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 2012, she was selected as one of the 100 “most promising and influential people in Korea” by the leading Korean newspaper Dong-A Times and received the Daewon Music Award (2012) for her outstanding international achievements as well as the Kumho Musician of the Year (2015).

Clara-Jumi Kang has recorded two CDs for Decca: “Modern Solo,” featuring works such as Schubert’s “Erlkönig” and sonatas by Ysaÿe, and a Brahms/Schumann album with Yeol-Eum Son. A dedicated chamber musician, she is a member of the Spectrum Concerts series at the Berlin Philharmonie and regularly performs at festivals in Asia and Europe.

Born in Germany into a musical family, Clara-Jumi Kang began playing the violin at the age of three and, a year later, became the youngest student at the Mannheim Musikhochschule. She then studied with Zakhar Bron at the Lübeck Musikhochschule and, at the age of seven, received a full scholarship to the University of Lübeck. She received a full scholarship to the Julliard School to study with Dorothy Delay and earned her bachelor's and master's degrees at the Korea National University of Arts under Nam-Yun Kim before completing her studies at the Munich Musikhochschule with Christoph Poppen.

Clara-Jumi Kang plays the 1702 “Thunis” Stradivarius.