Daejin Kim, Interview for the Korea International Competition for Young Pianists on August 23, 2013.
Daejin Kim is a South Korean pianist, an alumnus of the Juilliard School. He won the first prize in the 6th Robert Casadesus International Piano Competition - which is called Cleveland Competition today, in 1985. Kim is a professor of piano, the Dean of the School of Music at the Korea National University of Arts, and the music director of the Changwon Philharmonic Orchestra.
Early performances
In 1986, Kim made his New York debut and received a favorable review from the critic for The New York Times who wrote that "Daejin Kim demonstrated all the accouterments necessary for a successful solo career. Kim has what seems to be a foolproof technique and his careful choice of music showed a musician interested in subtleties, not just the usual frontal assaults of bravura repertory. This is a fine young musician, one with the physical means to express his considerable musical intelligence."
In 1994, Kim and his family moved to South Korea. Since then he has been pursuing dual careers as a concert artist and a teacher. His master classes have drawn international recognition and at the same time, he has been able to maintain a full schedule of performances, besides many appearances as a chamber musician and collaborator, such as the national recital tour (1995), the Schubert Bicentennial Celebration recital (1997) and appearances with all the major symphony orchestras including the Korean Symphony Orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. He appeared under the direction of Dmitri Kitaenko with the KBS Symphony Orchestra playing Schumann Concerto and this performance led him to appear as soloist with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra to perform two consecutive Chopin's Piano Concertos in the 1998 Orchestra Festival, the most prestigious music festival in Korea presented by the Seoul Arts Center. In 2000, he gave a one-day performance of the complete Beethoven's Piano Concertos. In 2001, he has started the cycle of the complete Mozart Piano Concertos which will last until 2005. He has also released three recordings, "4 Ballades by Chopin & 8 Nocturnes by Poulenc" (Arcadia label), "The Complete Nocturnes of John Field", and "The Complete Nocturnes of Chopin" (Monopoly label). His new recording of Two Piano Concertos by Mozart, which he conducted the Polish National Symphony Orchestra from the keyboard, was released in October 2004.
Education and faculty positions
Kim holds Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral degrees from the Juilliard School. He has been a member of the associate faculty at the Manhattan School of Music and guest artist faculty at the Ishikawa Music Academy in Japan. He is a currently Professor at the Korea National University of Arts. His students have won the prizes in the major international competitions such as the Busoni, the Viotti, the Ettlingen, the Oberlin, the Cleveland, the Sendai (Japan), the Epina, the Maria Canals International Competitions, Busoni Competition, and first prize at the 2005 Clara Haskil International Piano Competition and first prize at the 2006 Leeds Piano Competition.
Honors
In 1985, he won the first prize in the prestigious 6th Robert Casadesus International Piano Competition (presently, the Cleveland Competition) held in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. In recognition of his achievements both in Korea and aboard, he also received the 18th Nan-Pa Music Award, given to a musician who made the greatest contribution to the classical music world, by the Nan-Pa Society in honor of the late Hong Nan-pa, the maestro of Korea.
In 2002, he was awarded 'the musician of the year' prize by the Music Association of Korea, and he has been designated as "the most famous pianist in Korea" by national newspaper The Dong-A Ilbo. In 2006, he was decorated as "Artist of the Year" by South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. He received an honorary invitation from Yale University and Rutgers University to be a visiting professor.
Other activities
Kim has been a jury member for competitions such as the Busoni, the Gina Bachauer, Clara Haskil, the Beethoven (Bonn), the Cleveland International Piano Competition, the Sendai, the Hamamatsu in Japan and the Paderewski, the Rachmaninov (Moscow), the China International Competition, Leeds International Competition, and Queen Elisabeth among others.
After close collaboration with the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra as soloist and conductor for many years, he became its Conductor and Music Director in 2008. In 2013, Kim and the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra made their debut concert at Carnegie Hall. Kim is now making the complete cycle of Beethoven Symphonies and Concertos.
