Advertisement 1

Violinist with Exeter connection plays at Carnegie Hall

Bora Kim pursuing a doctorate at Yale School of Music

Article content

NEW YORK – Legendary musicians such as Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Led Zeppelin and The Beatles have played at New York City’s famous Carnegie Hall, and so has a 26-year-old violinist with ties to Exeter.

Advertisement 2
Story continues below
Article content

Bora Kim, who is studying to earn her Doctor of Musical Arts at the Yale School of Music in New Haven, Conn., played at Carnegie Hall last Friday as part of the prestigious Sejong Soloists, a group of professional musicians based in New York and Korea that performs internationally. Speaking to the Times-Advance recently before her Carnegie Hall performance, Kim said it was a big honour for her to perform with the group at a world-renowned facility and said the prospect of playing there was “super exciting.”

This was actually Kim’s second time playing at Carnegie Hall. Last year she played there as part of an ensemble. She said it was a fun experience, but this year’s performance was more exciting as it was part of the Sejong group and their annual gala concert. This was Kim’s first time playing with the Sejong Soloists. Her professor at Yale is the artistic director of the group.

Article content
Advertisement 3
Story continues below
Article content

“It’s a real honour for me as a student to be able to play with some of the top names in the world,” she said. “The group has had really famous artists and soloists . . . For me as a student it’s a real honour to participate.”

She described Carnegie Hall as a beautiful building with high ceilings and great sound.

As she spoke to the Times-Advance Kim was preparing for a week of rehearsals with the group.

Her connection to Exeter? Her parents, Young Soo and Kwee Ok, have been the owners of Exeter Variety for about two and a half years. Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea, but moved to Canada at the age of six with her parents and grew up in Toronto. She said she gets back to Exeter whenever she can to visit her parents when she’s on a break from her studies.

Advertisement 4
Story continues below
Article content

Kim started playing the violin when she was six years old and took to it quickly. While it started out just as a hobby (she also started the piano at that age), teachers said she had talent and encouraged to pursue music, so she decided to work towards being a professional musician.

In 2009, Kim performed as a soloist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra seven times when she was 16. She has also won first prize in national competitions and performed at Roy Thomson Hall, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, the Toronto Centre for the Arts, the CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio, and many more.

After high school in Toronto, Kim did her undergraduate at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles and became the school’s first double major in violin and piano. The school is one of the top music conservatories in the United States and is recognized internationally.  After graduating from Colburn she started a six-year Doctorate of Musical Arts at Yale, where she is now in her second year.

Advertisement 5
Story continues below
Article content

“It’s quite intense work,” she said, adding after this year she has a three-year period of post-residency work where she’s evaluated on a yearly portfolio she submits that details her performance activities. During that time she’ll be travelling a lot to perform as often as she can. For her final year, Kim gives a final recital and a set of oral exams. She expects to graduate in May 2023 with the goal of being a professional musician as a soloist and as a chamber musician as well as being a music professor at a conservatory or university.

“Growing up, my teachers have had such a huge influence on where I am right now, so I hope to be the same kind of mentor figure for my future students.”

Looking back on her playing career so far, Kim says one of the highlights was playing with classical concert pianist Emanuel Ax, who teaches at the Julliard School.

Advertisement 6
Story continues below
Article content

“He’s one of the biggest names in concert piano,” Kim says, adding she played with Ax at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in Connecticut in 2015.

“That was a huge honour for me just to play with such a great artist on stage.”

She has also performed at most of the major venues in Toronto, and last summer did a week-long residency in the Dominican Republic and was a featured soloist at the Vermont Mozart Festival and played in the Music Niagara Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake. In 2016 she did a recital in the Netherlands.

Kim names Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Beethoven as some of her favourite composers, and says there’s a great repertoire to explore and play for violinists.

“There’s just so much to learn and so much to play.”

Advertisement 7
Story continues below
Article content

At the recent Carnegie Hall show, Kim said a variety was to be played, including Wagner and Vivaldi as well as a premiere of a new piece.

Kim enjoys studying in New Haven, saying the campus is beautiful, particularly with the fall colours. There’s also lots of Gothic architecture on campus.

Asked why music became such an important part of her life, Kim says it’s about “being able to create and share something that is so personal and so unique to you. As a performer, every piece that you play consists of your own interpretations . . . No two performances of the same work are ever going to be the same . . . You’re always creating something new. It’s a changing art.”

It’s also a lot of hard work, dedication and practice, she said.

“You can always do better. You can always figure out an interpretation that’s different that works for you more . . . Sharing everything that you’ve worked on, and continuing to grow as an artist, that’s just really fulfilling for me.”

Article content
Comments
You must be logged in to join the discussion or read more comments.
Join the Conversation

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.

Latest National Stories
    News Near Exeter, Grand Bend and area
      This Week in Flyers