Violinist Clara-Jumi Kang is an artist of supreme musicality, impeccable refinement and poise, as borne out by the many awards and accolades she has received since she won first prize at the Indianapolis International Violin Competition (2010), Sendai Violin Competition (2010), and the Seoul Violin Competition (2009). Her cycle of Beethoven Violin Sonatas with pianist Sunwook Kim, which was released on Accentus in 2021, has received outstanding reviews and award nominations.
Highlights of the 2023–24 season include her Edinburgh Festival solo recital debut, as well as debuts with the Israel Philharmonic as part of the Côte-Saint-André Festival under Music Director Lahav Shani, with whom she will also make her Budapest Festival Orchestra debut, the LA Philharmonic as part of the Hollywood Bowl Festival, and the Cincinnati and Detroit symphony orchestras. Kang will also return to the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Auckland Philharmonia and tour South Korea with the Munich Philharmonic under the baton of Myung-whun Chung. As a recitalist, Kang regularly performs at the world’s most prestigious halls; she makes her Wigmore Hall debut this season and returns to the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées for two concerts.
Recent highlights include her debut at the Proms with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Ryan Bancroft, and performances with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and Taipei Symphony.
She made her concerto debut with the Hamburg Symphony at the age of five and has since performed with orchestras including the Warsaw Philharmonic, Kremerata Baltica, Mariinsky Orchestra, Orchestre National de Belgique, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, with conductors such as Bancroft, Boreyko, Bringuier, Chung, Fedoseyev, Paavo Järvi, Lü Jia, Märkl, Mena, Poppen, Roth, Temirkanov and Yamada.
In the U.S., her performances have taken her to the Atlanta, New Jersey, Indianapolis and Santa Fe symphony orchestras, and in Asia she has appeared with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, NCPA Beijing Orchestra, Macao Philharmonic and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. She was selected as one of the top 100 “Most promising and influential people of Korea” in 2012 by major Korean newspaper Dong-A Times and was awarded the Daewon Music Award (2012) for her outstanding international achievements as well as Kumho Musician of the Year (2015).
Clara-Jumi Kang has made two recordings for Decca: Modern Solo featuring works including Schubert’s “Last Rose,” “Erlkönig” and Ysaÿe Sonatas, and a Brahms/Schumann album with Yeol-Eum Son.
A devoted chamber musician, she regularly visits chamber music festivals and collaborates with renowned musicians including Janine Jansen, Gidon Kremer and Mischa Maisky.
Born in Germany to a musical family, Clara-Jumi Kang took up the violin at the age of three and a year later enrolled as the youngest ever student at the Mannheim Musikhochschule. She went on to study with Zakhar Bron at the Lübeck Musikhochschule and at the age of seven was awarded a full scholarship to The Juilliard School to study with Dorothy Delay. She took her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Korean National University of Arts under Nam-Yun Kim before completing her studies at the Munich Musikhochschule with Christoph Poppen.