Clara-Jumi Kang

Born to Korean parents and raised in Germany, Clara-Jumi Kang is internationally renowned for her musicality and virtuosity. Throughout her career she has received many awards and accolades including 1st prize at the Indianapolis International Violin Competition, Sendai Violin Competition and the Seoul Violin Competition.

Recent and upcoming highlights include festival appearances at the BBC Proms, the Hollywood Bowl alongside the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and her debut at the Salzburg Festival. Later in the 24/25 season, she made her debut with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia alongside Music Director Daniel Harding, and returned to the Munich Philharmonic with Chief Conductor Designate Lahav Shani to critical acclaim, jumping in for Lisa Batiashvili and Hilary Hahn respectively. She will also perform with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra on tour to China and Europe with Zubin Mehta.

She returns to the Israel Philharmonic and Seoul Philharmonic before debuts with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Ottawa, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra among others. She also performs a recital tour across Korea, and makes her recital debuts at the Boulez Saal in Berlin and the Hong Kong City Hall, as well as solo recitals in Rome and Torino.

Other recent highlights include performances with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic at the Isarphilharmonie and on tour to Korea alongside Myun-whun Chung, the Budapest Festival Orchestra with Lahav Shani, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony, NHK Symphony Orchestra and Bournemouth Symphony.

Since making her concerto debut with Hamburg Symphony at the age of five, Kang has regularly worked with leading conductors including P Järvi, Xavier-Roth, Denève, V Petrenko, Harding, van Zweden, Yamada, Ollikainen, Bancroft, Mena, Shani, T Fischer, Dutoit, Reif, Bihlmaier, Edusei and Long Yu. 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. Her cycle of Beethoven Violin Sonatas with pianist Sunwook Kim was released on Accentus last season to outstanding reviews and nominations. 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 Julliard School to study with Dorothy Delay. Having received musical guidance from Barenboim starting from the age of 11, she was then invited to perform with him and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra aged 12. She took her Bachelor and Masters degrees at the Korean National University of Arts under Nam-Yun Kim before completing her studies at the Munich Musikhochschule with Christoph Poppen.

Clara-Jumi Kang plays on the “Thunis” Stradivarius from 1702, on generous loan by  KIA.