David Kim
Violin
David Kim
Concertmaster of
the Philadelphia Orchestra
David Kim was named concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1999. Born in Carbondale, IL, in 1963, he started playing the violin at the age of three, began studies with the famed pedagogue Dorothy DeLay at the age of eight, and later received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School.
Highlights of Kim’s 2019/20 season include appearing as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra; teaching/performance residencies and master classes at the University of Texas at Austin, the Manhattan School of Music, Bob Jones University, the Taipei Academy and Festival in Taiwan, and the Aspen Music Festival; continued appearances as concertmaster of the All-Star Orchestra.
Each season Kim appears as a guest with the famed modern hymn writers Keith & Kristyn Getty at such venues as the Grand Old Opry in Nashville, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Carnegie Hall. A recent Getty Music CD includes Kim featured in a solo role. He is the founder and artistic director of the annual David Kim Orchestral Institute of Cairn University in Philadelphia, where he is also a professor of violin studies. Additionally, he serves as distinguished artist at the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University in Macon, GA.
Kim appears as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra each season as well as with numerous orchestras around the world. He also appears internationally at such festivals as Arizona Musicfest, the Kingston Chamber Music Festival, and the Taipei Music Academy and Festival. He frequently serves as an adjudicator at international violin competitions such as the Menuhin and Sarasate.
Kim has been awarded honorary doctorates from Eastern University in suburban Philadelphia, the University of Rhode Island, and Dickinson College. His instruments are a J.B. Guadagnini from Milan, ca. 1757, on loan from the Philadelphia Orchestra, and a Michele Angelo Bergonzi from Cremona, ca. 1754.